Discovery of new planetary nebulae in the Small Magellanic Cloud

[摘要] We present six new planetary nebulae (PNe) discovered in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from deep UK Schmidt telescope (UKST) narrow band Ha and broad-band short- red "SR" continuum images and confirmed spectroscopically. These 6 preliminary discoveries provide a 6% increase to the previously known SMC PN population of ∼100. Once spectroscopic follow-up of all our newly identified candidates is complete, we expect to increase the total number of known SMC PNe by up to 50%. This will permit a significant improvement to determination of the SMC PN luminosity function (PNLF) and enable further insights into the chemical evolution and kinematics of the SMC PN population.

[发布机构] Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia^1;Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, Hong Kong^2;School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Australia^3;Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), North Ryde; NSW, Australia^4

[效力级别] 天文学 [学科分类] 天文学(综合)

[关键词] Broad bands;Chemical evolution;Follow up;Luminosity functions;Narrow bands;Planetary nebulae;Schmidt telescope;Small magellanic clouds