Planetary Nebulae: Observational Properties, Mimics and Diagnostics

By D. Frew, Q. Parker. Publications Astronomical Society of Australia, 2010

138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The total number of true, likely and possible planetary nebulae (PN) now known in the Milky Way is nearly 3000, double the number known a decade ago. The new discoveries are a legacy of the recent availability of wide field, narrowband imaging surveys, primarily in the light of H-alpha. In this paper, we summarise the various PN discovery techniques, and give an overview of the many types of objects which mimic PN and which appear as contaminants in both Galactic and extragalactic samples. Much improved discrimination of classical PN from their mimics is now possible based on the wide variety of high-quality multiwavelength data sets that are now available. We offer improved taxonomic and observational definitions for the PN phenomenon based on evaluation of these better diagnostic capabilities. However, we note that evidence is increasing that the PN phenomenon is heterogeneous, and PN are likely to be formed from multiple evolutionary scenarios. In particular, the relationships between some collimated symbiotic outflows and bipolar PN remain uncertain.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Education, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c0569b7721cb082978d1a9f7453f1616ea7abe73

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. I. Bojičić
2. Q. Parker
3. D. Frew

In Education

1. I. Bojičić
2. D. Frew
3. Q. Parker

In Instrumentation

1. I. Bojičić
2. Q. Parker
3. D. Frew

Citations in the corpus

• The Hα surface brightness–radius relation: a robust statistical distance indicator for planetary nebulae (2015, methodology): “Ejecta from massive stars have also been confused with bona fide PNe (Frew & Parker 2010; Frew et al. 2014b).”