Spatially Resolved O II Recombination Line Measurements in the Ring Nebula

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

We present spatially-resolved long-slit measurements of O II recombination lines and [O III] forbidden lines in the Ring Nebula NGC 6720. We compare the abundances derived from O II and [O III]. We find that the O II emission and the [O III] emission are formed in physically distinct regions: while the [O III] emission generally follows that of Hβ , the O II emission peaks closer to the central star. The O+2 abundance derived from O II is as much as eight times larger than that derived from [O III] in the nebula interior, but is less than a factor two larger in the bright PN shell. These results are not consistent with a model of pure radiative recombination plus temperature fluctuations to explain the discrepant abundances from O II and [O III]. We also present results from a larger sample of planetary nebulae. We find some intriguing correlations. The discrepancy between O II-derived abundances and [O III]-derived abundances is anticorrelated with nebular surface brightness and diameter; larger, low surface brightness PNe have the largest abundance discrepancies, while compact PNe show little or no discrepancy. This suggests a mechanism that is correlated with the evolutionary state of the nebula. We see no correlation with central star temperature or luminosity, nor with nebular ionization.

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