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Probing the Local Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function with Gaia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2025

Nicholas Chornay Open the ORCID record for Nicholas Chornay [Opens in a new window] ,
Nicholas Walton Open the ORCID record for Nicholas Walton [Opens in a new window] ,
David Jones Open the ORCID record for David Jones [Opens in a new window]  and
Henri Boffin
Nicholas Chornay*
Affiliation:
1Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland; Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
Nicholas Walton
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
David Jones
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Henri Boffin
Affiliation:
ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
*
email: Nick.Chornay@unige.ch
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Abstract

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The Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) remains an important extragalactic distance indicator despite a still limited understanding of its most important feature - the bright cut-off. External galaxies benefit from consistent distance and extinction, which makes determining the PNLF easier but detailed study of individual objects much more difficult. Now, the advent of parallaxes from the Gaia mission has dramatically improved distance estimates to planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Milky Way. We have acquired ground-based narrowband imagery and measured the [OIII] fluxes for a volume-limited sample of hundreds of PNe whose best distance estimates from Gaia parallaxes and statistical methods place them within 3 kpc of the Sun. We present the first results of our study, comparing the local PNLF to other galaxies with different formation histories, and discussing how the brightness of the PNe relates to the evolutionary state of their central stars and the properties of the nebula.

Keywords

planetary nebulaesurveysdistances

Information

Type
Contributed Paper
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 19 , Symposium S384: Planetary Nebulae: A Universal Toolbox in the Era of Precision Astrophysics , December 2023 , pp. 43 - 49
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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