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We present the first detailed spatio-kinematical analysis and modelling of the southern planetary nebula SuWt 2. This object presents a problem for current theories of planetary nebula formation and evolution, as it is not known to contain a central post-main-sequence star.

Deep narrow-band [Nii]6584Å images reveal the presence of faint bipolar lobes emanating from the edges of the nebular ring. Long-slit observations of the Hα and [Nii]6584Å emission lines were obtained using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Multi-Mode Instrument on the 3.6-m ESO New Technology Telescope. The spectra reveal the nebular morphology as a bright torus encircling the waist of an extended bipolar structure. By deprojection, the inclination of the ring is found to be 68°±2° (cf. ∼90° for the double A-type binary believed to lie at the centre of the nebula), and the ring expansion velocity is found to be 28 km/s.

Our findings are discussed with relation to possible formation scenarios for SuWt 2. Through comparison of the nebular heliocentric systemic velocity, found here to be -25±5km/s, and the heliocentric systemic velocity of the double A-type binary, we conclude that neither component of the binary could have been the nebular progenitor. However, we are unable to rule out the presence of a third component to the system, which would have been the nebula progenitor.