Mid-Infrared Imaging of Planetary Nebulae

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Scientific paper

The dust in planetary nebulae is a component separate from the ionized gas. Although the dust is not expected to survive for long periods in the ionized plasma many PNs are observed to have large dust excesses in the mid-infrared. We have imaged 21 nebulae with the MICHELLE and T-ReCS instruments at Gemini Observatory to study their dust morphology, from which we will infer the dust properties by modeling the images along with other spectral or photometric data.We present absolutely calibrated images of the 19 well resolved objects. By choosing a medium-band 11.7 μm filter we exclude line emission from the 10.5 and 12.8 μm forbidden lines and see only dust emission. We use optical images, or images in other mid-infrared filters which include emission lines, to compare the dust and gas morphologies.Our preliminary results concerning the morphologies are (1) most nebulae show the same morphology in all the mid-infrared filters we have used; (2) this morphology generally is very similar to what is seen in Hα images; and (3) only one or two nebulae show evidence for dust beyond the ionized region. All these results strongly suggest that the dust is mostly confined to, and well mixed with, the ionized region. NGC 6210 is the only object in the sample that shows distinctly different dust and gas morphologies, indicating large-scale segregation of these components in the nebula.Two of the brighter objects in the sample (Hb12 and Vo1) were not resolved, and must have distinctly different grain properties than other objects. The differences in surface brightness among the resolved objects may indicate varying degrees of dust destruction in the ionized region. Our observations show that the bulge PNs Fg3 and H1-35 have silicate dust grains while NGC6881 has carbon-based dust grains.

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