Searching for Faint Planetary Nebulae Using the Digital Sky Survey

Details Searching for Faint Planetary Nebulae Using the Digital Sky Survey Searching for Faint Planetary Nebulae Using the Digital Sky Survey

2009-10-05

arxiv.org/abs/0910.0465v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA), full resolu

Scientific paper

Recent Halpha surveys such as SHS and IPHAS have improved the completeness of the Galactic planetary nebula (PN) census. We now know of ~3,000 PNe in the Galaxy, but this is far short of most estimates, typically ~25,000 or more for the total population. The size of the Galactic PN population is required to derive an accurate estimate of the chemical enrichment rates of nitrogen, carbon, and helium. In addition, a high PN count (~20,000) is strong evidence that most 1-8 Msun main sequence stars will go through a PN phase, while a low count (<10,000) argues that special conditions (e.g., a close binary interaction) are required to form a PN. We describe a technique for finding hundreds more PNe using the existing data collections of the digital sky surveys, thereby improving the census of Galactic PNe.

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