J/A+A/708/A191 Extinction distances for planetary nebulae (Deng+, 2026)
The extinction distances for over a thousand planetary nebulae with Gaia
measurements.
Deng J., Wang S., Jiang B., Deng L.
<Astron. Astrophys. 708, A191 (2026)>
=2026A&A...708A.191D 2026A&A...708A.191D (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Planetary nebulae ; Stars, distances ; Optical
Keywords: stars: distances - stars: evolution - dust, extinction -
planetary nebulae: general
Abstract:
Although Gaia has identified the central stars of planetary nebulae
(CSPNe) for about 70% of known Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe),
reliable distance estimates remain highly incomplete, with fewer than
one quarter having accurate parallaxes. Mean-while, the classical
extinction-distance sample has long been limited to about 70
objects, accounting for only 1.8 of the Galactic PNe population.
We aim to obtain a large and homogeneous catalogue of PN distances by
refining extinction-distance measurements with Gaia DR3, providing a
complementary method to CSPN-parallax-based distances.
We developed a Gaia-based extinction-distance method for PNe by
combining an improved blue-edge approach with an extinction-jump
model. Planetary nebula distances were inferred from stellar
extinction jumps in line-of-sight extinction-distance profiles and
constrained by comparisons with published distances, stellar spatial
distributions relative to the PN centre, and the PN radius-distance
relation.
We obtain distances for 1066 PNe, with a median relative uncertainty
of 13% and below 20% for about 87% of the sample. This sample includes
765 objects whose CSPN parallaxes have relative uncertainties greater
than 20% and 128 objects without CSPN parallaxes. Our method not only
complements CSPN parallax-based approaches for PN distance
determination but also extends the traditional extinction-based
approach to higher Galactic latitudes. In cases where published
distance estimates for the same PN differ significantly, the method
helps identify the more reliable distance. In addition, it helps
evaluate the reliability of CSPN identifications. We find a likely
misidentification in the reported CSPN for Fr2-36, and further
analyse 33 PNe with two different CSPNe identifications, suggesting a
more suitable CSPN for 15 objects. The resulting catalogue is the
largest homogeneous set of extinction-based PN distances to date and
provides a robust benchmark for studies of Galactic structure, PN
populations, and interstellar extinction.
Description:
We present extinction-based distances for 1066 Galactic planetary
nebulae derived using Gaia measurements and extinction-distance
relations. The catalogue provides the PNG designation, extinction
distances, uncertainties, and quality flags indicating the reliability
of the extinction jump detection.
The distances were derived using extinction-distance relations based
on multi-band photometric data combined with Gaia DR3 astrometry.
Additional documentation and data are available at Zenodo:
https://zenodo.org/records/17010405
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table3.dat 49 1066 Extinction distances for PN
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 11 A11 --- PNG PN G designation (Galactic coordinate identifier)
LLL.l+BB.ba
13- 37 A25 --- Name Common planetary nebula name
39- 42 I4 pc D Extinction distance
44- 47 I4 pc e_D Uncertainty of extinction distance
49 I1 --- Q [1/3] Quality flag indicating the reliability
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Acknowledgements:
Juan Deng, dengjuan(at)mail.bnu.edu.cn
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 05-Mar-2026