Spectroscopy of Planetary Nebulae at the Bright End of the Luminosity Function

Rilinger, A.; Kwitter, K. B.; Balick, B.; Corradi, R. L. M.; Galera Rosillo, R.; Jacoby, George H.; Shaw, Richard A.
Bibliographical reference

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #229, id.148.09

Advertised on:
1
2017
Number of authors
7
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We have obtained spectra of 8 luminous planetary nebulae (PNe) in M31 and 4 in the Large Magellanic Cloud with the goal of understanding their properties and those of their progenitor stars. These PNe are at or near the M* region (the most luminous PNe) in their respective galaxies. M31 PNe were observed at the Gran Telescopio Canarias using the OSIRIS spectrograph; LMC PNe were observed with the FORS2 spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. Line intensities were measured in IRAF. Using our n-level atom program, ELSA (Johnson, et.al, 2006, Planetary Nebulae in our Galaxy and Beyond, 234, 439), we determined temperature, density, and elemental abundances for each nebula. We then modeled the nebulae and central stars with Cloudy (Ferland, et al. 1998, PASP, 110, 761). We plan to use these models of the central stars to estimate the masses and ages of the progenitor stars. We hope to discover whether the progenitor stars of M* PNe exhibit consistently different characteristics from those of other PNe progenitors.