Detection of collimated bipolar outflows in the planetary nebula NGC 6572 shaping its nebular shell

Highly collimated bipolar outflows have been detected in the planetary nebula NGC 6572 via groundbased optical imagery and high-resolution long-slit spectroscopy. Kinematics and morphology together provide strong evidence of a direct interaction between the collimated outflows and the nebular elliptical shell, creating a double point-symmetric structure. As a consequence of this interaction, the elliptical shell has been broken up, and in this process parts of the shell have been accelerated, while the collimated outflow has been slowed down and/or deflected. These results strengthen the notion that collimated outflows are common in planetary nebulae and may play an important role in shaping the nebular shells. In addition, our kinematic data give a solid confirmation of previous estimates used to derive the distance to this nebula with the parallax expansion method.