The final wind: stars in retirement

Catastrophic mass loss is at the heart of 90% of all stellar
death. Low and intermediate mass stars lose their hydrogen envelope
while on the Asymptotic Giant Branch stars. At the end, there is
insufficient hydrogen left and the star rapidly evolves into a white
dwarf, briefly illuminating a planetary nebula on the way. The ejected
gas can be used to study the superwind, the nuclear burning and dredge
up processes in the star, and even (with some difficulties) the star
formation histories of the dying stellar population. In this talk I
will discuss the planetary nebulae of the Galactic bulge, briefly
mention AGB stars in globular clusters, and finally discuss the origin
of the mysterious AGB J-type stars, believed to be the cause of the
A+B grains in the proto-solar system.