The central star of this nebula has an observed intense magnetic field and the fast wind is no longer present, indicating that a back flow process has probably developed. Long-slit, spatially resolved echelle spectra have been obtained across the main body of NGC 1360 and over its system of bipolar jets. Deep images of the knotty structures of the jets have also been obtained. The data allow a detailed study of the structure and kinematics of this object and the results are modeled considering the effects of a magnetic collimation process in the development of the nebula and then switching off the fast stellar wind to follow its evolution to its current state. The model is able to successfully reproduce many of the key features of NGC 1360 under these premises.
NRAO Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of NGC 4278, NGC 4374 (M84), NGC 6166, and M87 (NGC 4486) have been made at 43 GHz in an effort to image the jet collimation region. This is the first attempt to image the first three sources at 43 GHz using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) techniques. These three sources were chosen because their estimated black hole mass and distance implied a Schwarzschild radius with large angular size, giving hope that the jet collimation regions could be studied. Phase referencing was utilize for the three sources because of their expected low flu…
We present the kinematics of a sample of bipolar planetary nebulae (PNe) which cover a wide range of observed morphologies and collimation degrees, from bipolar PNe with a marked equatorial ring and wide lobes to highly collimated objects. We use an empirical model in order to derive the expansion velocity, collimation degree, and inclination angle of the PN with respect to the plane of the sky. The equatorial expansion velocities measured in the objects in our sample are always in the low to medium range (3-16km/s),while their polar expansion velocities range from low to very high (18-100 km/…
This paper explores the effects of post-AGB winds driven solely by magnetic pressure from the stellar surface. It is found that winds can reach high speeds under this assumption, and lead to the formation of highly collimated proto-planetary nebulae. Bipolar knotty jets with periodic features and constant velocity are well reproduced by the models. Several wind models with terminal velocities from a few tens of $\kms$ up to $10^3$ $\kms$ are calculated, yielding outflows with linear momenta in the range $10^{36}-10^{40} \gcms$, and kinetic energies in the range $10^{42}-10^{47} $ erg. These re…
We have combined two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 imaging data with ground-based expansion velocities to determine distances to three planetary nebulae (NGC 6578, NGC 6884, and IC 2448). We used two variants of the expansion parallax technique--a gradient method and a magnification method--to determine the distances. The results from the two methods agree to within the errors. A fourth nebula was included in the study (NGC 6891), but the expansion was too small to determine the distance, and only a lower limit was obtained. This is the first paper in a series which will examine at le…
We report the first observation of Ly$α$ pumped molecular hydrogen emission lines in planetary nebulae. The H$_{2}$ emission observed in the ultraviolet spectra of NGC 6853 and NGC 3132 can be explained by excitation of vibrationally hot H$_{2}$ by Ly$α$ photons. Constraints are placed on the nebular Ly$α$ emission profile, as well as the molecular hydrogen temperature, column density and turbulent motion. These parameters are similar for the two nebulae, pointing to similar physical conditions in these objects. The ro-vibrational cascade following Ly$α$ pumping is predicted to have low surfac…
We report the detection of an Halpha emission-line structure in the upstream side of the planetary nebula NGC 40, which is predicted by numerical simulations, and which is attributed to Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Such a Rayleigh-Taylor instability is expected to occur at early stages of the interaction process between the interstellar medium (ISM) and a fast moving planetary nebula, as is the case for NGC 40. We resolved the Rayleigh-Taylor instability `tongues', as well as the flatness of the nebula around the `tongues', which results from the deceleration by the ISM.
Recent studies have focused on the the role of initially weak toroidal magnetic fields embedded in a stellar wind as the agent for collimation in planetary nebulae. In these models the wind is assumed to be permeated by a helical magnetic field in which the poloidal component falls off faster than the toroidal component. The collimation only occurs after the wind is shocked at large distances from the stellar source. In this paper we re-examine assumptions built into this ``Magnetized Wind Blown Bubble'' (MWBB) model. We show that a self-consistent study of the model leads to a large parameter…
We present a catalog of 535 planetary nebulae discovered in the flattened elliptical galaxy NGC 4697, using the FORS1 Cassegrain spectrograph of the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The catalog provides positions (x, y coordinates relative to the center of light of NGC 4697, as well as RA, Dec.), and, for almost all PNs, the magnitude m(5007) and the heliocentric radial velocity in km/s.
An early analysis of Chandra observations of the planetary nebula NGC 6543 suggested that the location and the derived temperature for the X-ray emitting region is inconsistent with the abundances measured for this object (Chu et al. 2001). We revisit observations of this source (following significant updates to both the reprocessing and extraction software) in order to propose a resolution to this apparent anomaly. Our re-analysis using abundances found from observations in the infrared, optical, and ultraviolet suggests that the location and temperature of the X-ray emission from NGC 6543 is…
NGC 1360 is a large planetary nebula (PN) without an obvious shell morphology. We have analyzed H-alpha images and high-dispersion echelle spectra of NGC 1360 in order to construct spatio-kinematic models and to determine its density distribution. The best-fit model indicates that NGC 1360 is a prolate ellipsoidal shell whose major axis is twice as long as its minor axis and is tilted by 60 arcdeg with respect to the line of sight. The large kinematic age of the shell, ~10,000 yr, and the low density of the nebula, <130 H-atom cm^-3, imply that NGC 1360 is an evolved PN and has begun to merge …
We have examined a stream-source model for the production of the cometary tails observed in the Helix Nebula NGC 7293 in which a transonic or moderately supersonic stream of ionized gas overruns a source of ionized gas. Hydrodynamic calculations reveal velocity structures which are in good agreement with the observational data on tail velocities and are consistent with observations of the nebular structure. The results also are indicative of a stellar atmosphere origin for the cometary globules. Tail remnants persist for timescales long enough for their identification with faint striations vis…
We present the results of mapping the planetary nebula NGC6369 using multiple long slit spectra taken with the CTIO 1.5m telescope. We create two dimensional emission line images from our spectra, and use these to derive fluxes for 17 lines, the Halpha/Hbeta extinction map, the [SII] line ratio density map, and the [NII] temperature map of the nebula. We use our photoionization code constrained by these data to determine the distance, the ionizing star characteristics, and show that a clumpy hour-glass shape is the most likely three-dimensional structure for NGC6369. Note that our knowledge of…
XMM-Newton EPIC observations of the planetary nebula (PN) NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula, have detected extended X-ray emission in its central cavity. The diffuse X-ray emission must originate in the shocked fast stellar wind. The spectra show that the temperature of the hot gas is 1.8*10^6 K. The rms density derived from the volume emission measure is a few tens H-atom/cm^3. The hot gas does not appear over-pressurized with respect to the nebular shell. NGC 7009 represents an evolutionary stage at which the influence of the hot gas in the PN interior starts to decline due to the diminishing stre…
We have obtained radial velocities of 68 planetary nebulae surrounding the SB0 galaxy NGC 3384 in the Leo I group, using the CTIO 4 m telescope and the Rutgers Fabry-Perot interferometer. The PN system exhibits a well-ordered rotation field aligned with the photometric axes of the galaxy. The rotation curve is flat from about 2 kpc until at least 7 kpc. Our results imply that at least a third of the dynamical mass of the NGC 3379/3384 system may be accounted for in the two bright galaxies.
We consider the possibility of cluster membership for 13 planetary nebulae that are located in close proximity to open clusters lying in their lines of sight. The short lifetimes and low sample size of intermediate-mass planetary nebulae with respect to nearby open clusters conspire to reduce the probability of observing a true association. Not surprisingly, line of sight coincidences almost certainly exist for 7 of the 13 cases considered. Additional studies are advocated, however, for 6 planetary nebula/open cluster coincidences in which a physical association is not excluded by the availabl…
We present a study of the structure and kinematics of the triple-shell planetary nebula NGC 7662 based on long-slit echelle spectroscopic observations and HST archival narrow-band images. The structure of NGC 7662 main nebula consists of a central cavity surrounded by two concentric shells. The bright inner shell has a non-negligible thickness and the highest density in the nebula. The outer shell is filled with nebular material whose density profile shows a propto 1/r drop-off in the inner regions of the shell and flattens in the outermost regions. Both the inner and the outer shells can be d…
For the planetary nebula NGC 7009, we present a comparison of two unpublished Very Large Array archive data sets taken with a time separation of 8.09 years to confirm the proper motions of its ansae observed in the optical. We determine values of 23$\pm$6 and 34$\pm$10 mas yr$^{-1}$ for the eastern and western ansae, respectively. There is marginal evidence suggesting that the flux densities of the jets that connect the ansae with the main body of the nebula diminished in about 30% over the period between the two observations. We also set an upper limit to the expansion of the main body of the…
We use a 3D photoionization modeling tool to study the morpho-kinematic properties of the Planetary Nebula (PN) NGC 3132. We show that it is possible to reproduce the low resolution observations (spectra and images) with an ellipsoidal shell. However, high resolution observations, as those showing a density variation along the nebula and the [O III]5007 velocity profiles, definitively rule out this description. We show that a bipolar Diabolo shape with a 40 degres rotation of the symmetry axis relative to the line of sight successfully reproduces the observed images, as well as the high resolu…
We present here the 7.0-8.7 micron spectrum of the bright reflection nebula NGC 7023. Our observations are made with the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on the European satellite Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The vibrational bands of the ionized fullerene C60+ are expected at 7.11 and 7.51 microns, while those of the neutral fullerene C60 are expected at 7.0 and 8.45 microns. We estimate an upper limit in NGC 7023 for the C60+ abundance of <0.26% of the interstellar abundance of carbon, while C60 contains <0.27% of interstellar carbon.
This paper is the third in a series reporting on a study of carbon abundances in a carefully chosen sample of planetary nebulae representing a large range in progenitor mass and metallicity. We make use of the IUE Final Archive database containing consistently-reduced spectra to measure line strengths of C III] 1909 along with numerous other UV lines for the planetary nebulae DDDM1, IC 3568, IC 4593, NGC 6210, NGC 6720, NGC 6826, & NGC 7009. We combine the IUE data with line strengths from optical spectra obtained specifically to match the IUE slit positions as closely as possible, to determin…
We report the detection of 21-cm line emission from H I in the planetary nebula NGC 7293 (the Helix). The observations, made with the Very Large Array, show the presence of a ring of atomic hydrogen that is associated with the outer portion of the ionized nebula. This ring is most probably gas ejected in the AGB phase that has been subsequently photodissociated by radiation from the central star. The H I emission spreads over about 50 km/s in radial velocity. The mass in H I is approximately 0.07 solar masses, about three times larger than the mass in molecular hydrogen and comparable with the…
Magnetic fields are an important but largely unknown ingredient of planetary nebulae. They have been detected in oxygen-rich AGB and post-AGB stars, and may play a role in the shaping of their nebulae. Here we present SCUBA sub-millimeter polarimetric observations of four bipolar planetary nebulae and post-AGB stars, including two oxygen-rich and two carbon-rich nebulae, to determine the geometry of the magnetic field by dust alignment. Three of the four sources (NGC 7027, NGC 6537 and NGC 6302) present a well-defined toroidal magnetic field oriented along their equatorial torus or disk. NGC 6…
We present Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images of a portion of the bright northeast rim of NGC 6888, the nebular shell physically associated with the Wolf-Rayet star HD 192163. The exposures are taken in the light of Halpha 6563, [O III] 5007, and [S II] 6717,6731. The images are used to constrain models of the ionization structure of nebular features. From these models we infer physical conditions within features, and estimate elemental abundances within the nebula. The results of our analysis, together with the degree of small scale inhomogeneity apparent in the images, call into question th…
We report the discovery of X-ray emission from NGC 7027, a prototypical object for the study of the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae (PNs). Observations with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory show that the X-ray emission from NGC 7027 is extended and is bipolar in morphology. The ACIS spectrum displays strong emission from highly ionized Ne and weaker emission features which we attribute to O, Mg, and Si. Model fits to this spectrum suggest a characteristic temperature T_x ~ 3x10^6 K and an intrinsic (unabsorbed) X-ray luminosity of L…
We present new radial velocity measurements of 586 stars in a one-degree field centered on the open cluster M46, and the planetary nebula NGC 2438 located within a nuclear radius of the cluster. The data are based on medium-resolution optical and near-infrared spectra taken with the AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We find a velocity difference of about 30 km/s between the cluster and the nebula, thus removing all ambiguities about the cluster membership of the planetary nebula caused by contradicting results in the literature. The line-of-sight velocity dispersion of th…
NGC 6543 is one of the few planetary nebulae (PNe) whose X-ray emission has been shown to be extended and originate from hot interior gas. Using FUSE observations we have now detected nebular O VI emission from NGC 6543. Its central star, with an effective temperature of ~50,000 K, is too cool to photoionize O V, so the O VI ions must have been produced by thermal collisions at the interface between the hot interior gas and the cool nebular shell. We modeled the O VI emission incorporating thermal conduction, but find that simplistic assumptions for the AGB and fast wind mass loss rates overpr…
We find that a non-axisymmetric bow shock model, with an appropriate choice of parameters, could fit the line splitting velocity field of the cone-like H$α$ nebula in NGC 4945 better than a canonical cone model. Meanwhile, the bow shock model could also reproduce the morphology of the H$α$ nebula. The bow shock results from the interaction of the galactic superwinds with a giant HII region. It is implied that the starburst ring or disk around the galactic nucleus should be generating strong winds, and the bright H$α$ knot northwest of the nucleus be suffering an anisotropic mass loss process.
We use line-of-sight velocity information on the filamentary emission-line nebula of NGC 1275 to infer a dynamical model of the nebula's flow through the surrounding intracluster gas. We detect outflowing gas and flow patterns that match simulations of buoyantly rising bubbles from which we deduce that some of the nebula filaments have been drawn out of NGC 1275. We find a radial gradient of the ratio [NII]6584/H-alpha which may be due to a variation in metallicity, interactions with the surrounding intracluster medium or a hardening of the excitation mechanism. We find no preferred spatial co…
Direct imagery and long-slit, spatially resolved echellograms of the high excitation planetary nebula NGC 1501 allowed us to study in detail the expansion velocity field, the physical conditions (electron temperature, electron density, ionization) and the spatial distribution of the nebular gas. An electron temperature of 11500 K and a turbulence of 18 km/s are derived by comparing the Halpha and [OIII] emission line profiles, but large, small scale fluctuations of both these quantities are present in the ionized gas. The radial density distribution shows external peaks up to 1400 cm-3; they h…
Continuing our series of papers on the three-dimensional (3-D) structures of and accurate distances to Planetary Nebulae (PNe), we present our study of the planetary nebula NGC6781. For this object we construct a 3-D photoionization model and, using the constraints provided by observational data from the literature we determine the detailed 3-D structure of the nebula, the physical parameters of the ionizing source and the first precise distance. The procedure consists in simultaneously fitting all the observed emission line morphologies, integrated intensities and the 2-D density map from the…
We revisit Chandra observations of the planetary nebulae NGC 7027 and BD +30 3639 in order to address the question of abundance anomalies in the X-ray emitting gas. Enhanced abundances relative to solar of magnesium (Mg) for NGC 7027 and neon (Ne) for BD +30 3639 are required to fit their X-ray spectra, whereas observations at optical and infrared wavelengths show depleted Mg and Ne in these systems. We attribute the enhancement of Mg in NGC 7027 in the X-ray, relative to the optical, to the depletion of Mg onto dust grains within the optical nebula. For BD +30 3639, we speculate that the high…
As the first step to determine disk mass-to-light ratios for normal spiral galaxies, we present the results of an imaging survey for planetary nebulae (PNe) in six nearby, face-on systems: IC 342, M74 (NGC 628), M83 (NGC 5236), M94 (NGC 4736), NGC 5068, and NGC 6946. Using Blanco/Mosaic II and WIYN/OPTIC, we identify 165, 153, 241, 150, 19, and 71 PN candidates, respectively, and use the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) to obtain distances. For M74 and NGC 5068, our distances of 8.6 +/- 0.3 Mpc and 5.4 +0.2/-0.4 Mpc are the first reliable estimates to these objects; for IC 342 (3.5 …
We present a study of the kinematics of the outer regions of the early-type galaxy NGC 1316, based on radial velocity measurements of 43 planetary nebulae as well as deep integrated-light absorption line spectra. The smoothed velocity field of NGC 1316 indicates fast rotation at a distance of 16 kpc, possibly associated with an elongated feature orthogonal to the inner dust lanes. The mean square stellar velocity is approximately independent of radius, and the estimated total mass of the system is 2.6 x 10^11 M_sun within a radius of 16 kpc, implying an integrated mass-to-light ratio of M/L_B …
New, very long (25'), cuts of spatially resolved profiles of the Halpha and [N II] optical emission lines have been obtained over the face of the Helix planetary nebula, NGC 7293. These directions were chosen to supplement previous similar, though shorter, cuts as well as crossing interesting phenomena in this nebular envelope. In particular one new cut crosses the extremes of the proposed CO J=2-1 emitting outer "torus" shown by Huggins and his co-workers to be nearly orthogonal to its inner counterpart. The second new cut crosses the extensive outer filamentary arcs on either side of the bri…
The ouflowing proper motions of fifteen knots in the dominant northwestern lobe of the high-excitation poly-polar planetary nebula NGC 6302 have been determined by comparing their positions relative to those of faint stars in an image taken at the San Pedro Martir Observatory in 2007 to those in a South African Astronomical Observatory archival plate obtained by Evans in 1956. The Hubble-type expansion of this lobe is now directly confirmed in a model independent way from these measurements. Furthermore, an unambiguous distance to NGC 6302 of 1.17 +/- 0.14 kpc is now determined. Also all the v…
The optical expansion parallax of NGC 6543 has been detected and measured using two epochs of HST images separated by a time baseline of only three years. We have utilized three separate methods of deriving the angular expansion of bright fiducials, the results of which are in excellent agreement. We combine our angular expansion estimates with spectroscopically obtained expansion velocities to derive a distance to NGC 6543 of 1001$\pm$269 pc. The deduced kinematic age of the inner bright core of the nebula is 1039$\pm$259 years; however, the kinematic age of the polar caps that surround the c…
The spectra of the planetary nebula NGC2392 is reanalysed using spectral measurements made in the mid-infrared with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The aim is to determine the chemical composition of this object. We also make use of IUE and ground based spectra. Abundances determined from the mid-infrared lines, which are insensitive to electron temperature, are used as the basis for the determination of the composition, which are found to differ somewhat from earlier results. The abundances found, especially the low value of helium and oxygen, indicate that the central star was originally of rat…
We present images and high-resolution spectra of the planetary nebulae IC 2553 and NGC 5882. Spatio-kinematic modeling of the nebulae shows that they are composed of a markedly elongated inner shell, and of a less aspherical outer shell expanding at a considerably higher velocity than the inner one. Embedded in the outer shells of both nebulae are found several low-ionization knots. In IC 2553, the knots show a point-symmetric distribution with respect to the central star: one possible explanation for their formation is that they are the survivors of pre-existing point-symmetric condensations …
A photoelectric monitoring program has been applied, during the last four years, to five central stars of planetary nebulae (PNNs) with strong O\,VI $λ$ 3811--34 Å\hspace{0.1mm} emission. NGC\,6905 and, marginally, NGC\,2452, show intrinsic luminosity variations, while NGC\,7026, IC\,2003 and NGC\,1501 have constant luminosity within a few mmag. Photometric data have been analyzed with the best available packages for power--spectra reductions. Both pulsators have periods and physical characteristics well encompassed by the theoretical pulsational models relative to these stars.
Low dispersion spectra have been obtained of five planetary nebulae in the elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus-A) from the catalogue of Hui et al. (1993). The planetary nebulae (PN) cover a range of galactocentric radius from 7.9 to 17.7 arcmin (8 to 18Kpc). The spectra display typical emission lines of H I, He I, He II, [O III], [N II] and [S II] and appear very similar to high excitation planetary nebulae in the Galaxy. This implies that, from a stellar evolution viewpoint, there should be no peculiar effects introduced by considering the bright cut-off of the PN luminosity function for di…
Long-slit echellograms of the high excitation planetary nebula NGC1501, reduced according to the methodology developed by Sabbadin et al. (2000a, b), allowed us to obtain the ``true'' distribution of the ionized gas in the eight nebular slices covered by the spectroscopic slit. A 3-D rendering procedure is described and applied, which assembles the tomographic maps and rebuilds the spatial structure. The images of NGC 1501, as seen in 12 directions separated by 15 deg, form a series of stereoscopic pairs giving surprising 3-D views in as many directions. The main nebula consists of an almost o…
We present narrow-band images and long-slit echelle spectra of the planetary nebula (PN) NGC 6778. The data show this PN as bipolar, with a very prominent low-excitation equatorial toroid, high-excitation lobes and two pairs of collimated outflows. Morphologically, the pairs of outflows are different from each other; one is linear and oriented along the bipolar axis, the other presents an S-shape with changing orientations. Besides the different morphology, both pairs of collimated outflows present radial velocities increasing with distance from the central star and share a common origin in br…
We present interferometric observations of $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO $J$=2$-$1 emission from the butterfly-shaped, young planetary nebula NGC 6302. The high angular resolution and high sensitivity achieved in our observations allow us to resolve the nebula into two distinct kinematic components: (1) a massive expanding torus seen almost edge-on and oriented in the North-South direction, roughly perpendicular to the optical nebula axis. The torus exhibits very complex and fragmentated structure; (2) high velocity molecular knots moving at high velocity, higher than 20 \kms, and located in the opt…
V651 Mon is the binary central star of the bipolar planetary nebula NGC 2346. The star showed the second-ever deep fading in 1996-1997, which was presumably caused by obscuration by a dust cloud in the planetary nebula, as was proposed to explain the 1981-1985 event. The entire duration of the 1996-1997 event was \~400 d, remarkably shorter than the 1981-1985 event, suggesting that the obscuring body was smaller or had a larger tangential velocity. The most remarkable feature in this event was the presence of a sharply defined transient clearing (brightening). From the time-scale of the variat…
Echelle spectrophotometry of the planetary nebula NGC 5307 is presented. The data consists of VLT UVES observations in the 3100 to 10360 A range. Electron temperatures and densities have been determined using different line intensity ratios. We determine the H, He, C, and O abundances based on recombination lines, these abundances are almost independent of the temperature structure of the nebula. We also determine the N, O, Ne, S, Cl, and Ar abundances based on collisionally excited lines, the ratios of these abundances relative to that of H depend strongly on the temperature structure of the …
We investigate the electron temperature of the inner halo and nebular core regions of NGC 6543, using archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) images taken through narrow band [O III] filters. Balick et al. (2001) showed that the inner halo consists of a number of spherical shells. We find the temperature of this inner halo to be much higher (~15000 K) than that of the bright core nebula (~8500 K). Photo-ionization models indicate that hardening of the UV radiation from the central star cannot be the main source of the higher temperature in the halo region. U…
Spatially resolved, long-slit echellograms at different position angles of the bright, low excitation planetary nebula NGC 40 indicate that, the higher is the gas excitation, the faster is the radial motion, thus confirming the overturn of the Wilson law already suggested by Sabbadin and Hamzaoglu (1982). New reduction procedures, giving the radial trends of the electron density and of the ionic and chemical abundances, were applied to NGC 40; they show that: - the radial matter distribution has a sharp ``bell'' profile with peaks up to 4000 cm-3; - the ionization structure is peculiar, indica…
The planetary nebula NGC 6881 displays in the optical a quadrupolar morphology consisting of two pairs of highly collimated bipolar lobes aligned along different directions. An additional bipolar ejection is revealed by the hydrogen molecular emission, but its wide hourglass morphology is very different from that of the ionized material. To investigate in detail the spatial distribution of molecular hydrogen and ionized material within NGC 6881, and to determine the prevalent excitation mechanism of the H2 emission, we have obtained new near-IR Br-gamma and H2 and optical H-alpha and [N II] im…
New radio observations of the counterpart of the ultraluminous X-ray source in NGC 5408 show for the first time that the radio emission is resolved with an angular size of 1.5 to 2.0 arcseconds. This corresponds to a physical size of 35-46 pc, and rules out interpretation of the radio emission as beamed emission from a relativistic jet. In addition, the radio spectral index of the counterpart is well determined from three frequencies and found to be alpha=-0.8 pm 0.2. The radio emission is likely to be optically-thin synchrotron emission from a nebula surrounding the X-ray source. The radio lu…
We report the results of an [O III] lambda 5007 survey for planetary nebulae (PN) in five galaxies that were hosts of well-observed Type Ia supernovae: NGC 524, NGC 1316, NGC 1380, NGC 1448 and NGC 4526. The goals of this survey are to better quantify the zero-point of the maximum magnitude versus decline rate relation for supernovae Type Ia and to validate the insensitivity of Type Ia luminosity to parent stellar population using the host galaxy Hubble type as a surrogate. We detected a total of 45 planetary nebulae candidates in NGC 1316, 44 candidates in NGC 1380, and 94 candidates in NGC 4…
We report the discovery of a dozen Herbig-Haro jets illuminated by the Lyman continuum and/or softer far-ultraviolet radiation fields of nearby high mass stars. Five irradiated outflows lie in the outer parts of the Orion Nebula and seven lie near the reflection nebula NGC 1333 in the Perseus molecular cloud. We propose that the UV radiation field has eroded residual material left over from the formation of these young source stars. Many of the irradiated jets exhibit unusual C-shaped bending. In the outskirts of the Orion Nebula, most irradiated jets bend away from the core of the nebula. On …
The study of planetary nebulae (PNe) in the nearby post-merger elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Cen A) now has a history of nearly twenty years. As the nearest giant elliptical, it is a prime target for extragalactic PN studies. These studies have addressed many issues including the galaxy's distance, dark matter content, halo structure, merger history, and stellar populations. We review the main PN studies that have been conducted in NGC 5128, and introduce a new study where we measure the [NII]/H-alpha ratio for 134 PNe. We find that there are no PNe in our sample that are obviously of Type I, su…
We have observed the S(0), S(1), S(2), S(3), S(4) and S(5) rotational lines of molecular hydrogen (H2) towards the peak of the photodissociation region (PDR) associated with the reflection nebula NGC 7023. The observed H2 line ratios show that they arise in warm gas with kinetic temperatures ~300 - 700 K. However, the data cannot be fitted by an ortho- to para- (OTP) ratio of 3. An OTP ratio in the range ~1.5 - 2 is necessary to explain our observations. This is the first detection of a non-equilibrium OTP ratio measured from the H2 pure-rotational lines in a PDR. The existence of a dynamical …
We present high resolution HST ultraviolet spectroscopy of NGC3242, the only planetary nebula with a measured abundance of 3He. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) has been used to observe the CIII multiplet near 1908 A. The presence of 12C and 13C lines at these wavelengths allows a direct estimate of the carbon isotopic ratio in the ionized gas of the nebula. We have detected the 12C doublet and obtained an upper limit on the 13C 1909.6 A line, resulting in a carbon isotopic ratio 12C/13C > 38, in agreement with standard stellar models. The lack of the 13C line and the presence o…
We report the serendipitous detection of the planetary nebula NGC 5315 by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Chandra imaging spectroscopy results indicate that the X-rays from this PN, which harbors a Wolf-Rayet (WR) central star, emanate from a T_X ~ 2.5x10^6 K plasma generated via the same wind-wind collisions that have cleared a compact (~8000 AU radius) central cavity within the nebula. The inferred X-ray luminosity of NGC 5315 is ~2.5x10^{32} erg s^{-1} (0.3-2.0 keV), placing this object among the most luminous such ``hot bubble'' X-ray sources yet detected within PNe. With the X-ray dete…
Narrow-band H$α$ and [N {\sc ii}] images and high-dispersion spatially-resolved echelle spectroscopy of the planetary nebula NGC 6891 are presented. These observations show a great wealth of structures. The bright central nebula is surrounded by an attached shell and a detached outer halo. Both the inner and intermediate shells can be described as ellipsoids with similar major to minor axial ratios, but different spatial orientations. The kinematical ages of the intermediate shell and halo are 4,800 and 28,000 years, respectively. The inter-shell time lapse is in good agreement with the evolut…
The H2 and optical (Ha, [NII]) morphology of NGC 6881 are very different. Here we present a preliminary report of the analysis of new optical (Ha and [NII]) and near-IR (Brg and H2) images and intermediate resolution JHK spectra of this nebula. Our observations confirm the association of the H2 bipolar lobes to NGC 6881 and reveal that H2 is predominantly shock excited in this nebula. We conclude that NGC 6881 has multiple bipolar lobes that formed at different phases of the nebular evolution and that the collimation conditions or even the collimating agent changed from one ejection to the oth…
We present photometric and kinematic information obtained by measuring 197 planetary nebulae (PNs) discovered in the flattened Fornax elliptical galaxy NGC 1344 (also known as NGC 1340) with an on-band, off-band, grism + on-band filter technique. We build the PN luminosity function (PNLF) and use it to derive a distance modulus m-M=31.4, slightly smaller than, but in good agreement with, the surface brightness fluctuation distance. The PNLF also provides an estimate of the specific PN formation rate: 6x10^-12 PNs per year per solar luminosity. Combining the positional information from the on-b…
Images obtained with the ESO VLT and FORS1 in [O III] 5007 on- and off-band as well as r_Gunn filters are analyzed to search for Planetary Nebula (PN) candidates in the dwarf irregular NGC 3109. In the continuum-subtracted [O III] 5007 on-band images, a large number of emission-line regions were detected. We describe the criteria employed in order to distinguish PN candidates from compact HII regions, finding that the sizes and the properties of the ionizing stars are the most unambiguous discriminators for separating the two classes. Based upon these criteria, we have found 20 PN candidates f…
We present near-infrared spectroscopy of fluorescent molecular hydrogen (H_2) emission from molecular filaments in the reflection nebula NGC 7023. We derive the relative column densities of H_2 rotational-vibrational states from the measured line emission and compare these results with several model photodissociation regions covering a range of densities, incident UV-fields, and excitation mechanisms. Our best-fit models for one filament suggest, but do not require, either a combination of different densities, suggesting clumps of 10^6 cm^{-3} in a 10^4 - 10^5 cm^{-3} filament, or a combinatio…
