Witnessing the birth of a planetary nebula

Planetary nebulae are one of the last stages of evolution of stars like our Sun. The beginning of photoionization, giving rise to a new planetary nebula, will certainly produce dramatic changes in the object, but this instant is difficult to observe, since it will only take a few decades.

During of a long-time study of water masers in post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae, we identified an object (IRAS 15103-5754) in which we believe photoionization has just started. In this talk I
will mainly present radio observations of IRAS 15103-5754, which show several unique features (e.g., evidence for explosive motions traced by its water masers, the presence of variable non-thermal radio continuum emission). This will give us some insights about the processes taking place when a planetary nebula is created.

The talk will include a general introduction to the radio emission processes in planetary nebulae, accessible to non-experts in the field.