English

What can we learn about the kinematics of bright extragalactic planetary nebulae

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2009-08-17 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We present high resolution spectroscopy in the [\ion{O}{3}]λ\lambda5007 and Hα\alpha lines of bright planetary nebulae in the Milky Way bulge and the dwarf galaxies M32, Fornax, Sagittarius, and NGC 6822 obtained at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in the Sierra San Pedro Martir using the Manchester Echelle Spectrograph. We use the high signal-to-noise (S/N) observations of Milky Way bulge planetary nebulae to explore what kinematic information can be determined reliably when observing extragalactic planetary nebulae in the [\ion{O}{3}]λ\lambda5007 line at modest S/N. We find that the intrinsic line widths measured in [\ion{O}{3}]λ\lambda5007 and Hα\alpha are very similar. Over the range of S/N available in this sample, the line width we measure is independent of the S/N. Finally, deviations from a Gaussian line shape are small. Thus, the line width of the [\ion{O}{3}]λ\lambda5007 line in bright extragalactic planetary nebulae should reflect the kinematics of most of the mass in the ionized nebular shell.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.2111,
  title  = {What can we learn about the kinematics of bright extragalactic planetary nebulae},
  author = {M. G. Richer and S. -H. Baez and J. A. Lopez and H. Riesgo and Ma. T. Garcia-Diaz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2111},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in the october 2009 issue of Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica