J/ApJ/1004/220 PNe using Gaia DR3 and O/H gradient (Cavichia+, 2026)
Recalibration of the Hα surface brightness-radius relation for
planetary nebulae using Gaia DR3:
New distances and the Milky Way oxygen radial gradient.
Cavichia O., Monteiro H., Cervino M., da Cunha-Silva A.R., Maciel W.J.,
Cardoso A.F.S.
<Astrophys. J. 1004, 220 (2026)>
=2026ApJ..1004..220C 2026ApJ..1004..220C (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Milky Way ; Planetary nebulae ; Abundances ; Optical
Keywords: planetary nebulae - chemical abundances - Milky Way disk -
Galaxy chemical evolution - interstellar abundances
Abstract:
The spatial distribution of chemical elements in the Galactic disk
provides key constraints on models of galaxy evolution. However,
studies using planetary nebulae (PNe) as tracers have been
historically limited by large uncertainties in their distances. To
overcome the long-standing distance uncertainties, we recalibrated the
Hα surface brightness-radius relation from Frew et al.
(2013MNRAS.431....2F 2013MNRAS.431....2F, Cat. J/MNRAS/431/2) with Gaia DR3 parallaxes,
deriving distances for 1130 PNe of which 415 have Bayesian distances
based on Gaia DR3 parallaxes. The O/H radial gradient for 231 disk PNe
is fitted considering three models: a single linear gradient and
segmented linear fits with one or two breaks. The segmented fits
indicate a change in slope near the solar radius (R∼8kpc), with a
flatter or slightly positive gradient inward and a steeper negative
gradient outward. This feature may reflect changes in star formation
efficiency driven by the Galactic bar or the corotation resonance of
the spiral arms. The breaks in the metallicity radial gradients
observed in this work may result from the superposition of distinct
stellar populations associated with the thin and thick disks. The
two-dimensional O/H distribution in the Galactic plane supports the
adopted distances and reveals modest azimuthal asymmetry, with
enhanced abundances near the bar at positive longitudes, and a bimodal
abundance structure between the inner and outer solar regions. Our
results provide new constraints on the chemical evolution of the Milky
Way, the impact of non-axisymmetric structures, and the possible
existence of distinct radial abundance regimes across the Galactic
disk.
Description:
Catalogue of distances of Planetary nebulae (PNe) and identification
of the Central Stars (CS) in the Gaia DR3 archival database. Table 1
contains some relevant parameters of the CS identified in Gaia DR3, as
Gaia magnitude, colour, parallax, distance to nebular center,
identification reliability. Table 3 contains the distance catalogue
derived from the Bayesian method with the recalibrated Hα
surface brightness-radius relation for planetary nebulae using Gaia
DR3 as the prior and the likelihood from the Gaia DR3 parallax.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 114 436 Gaia DR3 sources identified as CSPNe
table3.dat 165 1130 Catalogue of distances
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See also:
I/355 : Gaia DR3 Part 1. Main source (Gaia Collaboration, 2022)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 10 A10 --- PNG Name given in PNG nomenclature (LLL.l+BB.b)
12- 28 A17 --- Name Common name
30- 48 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia DR3 ID number
50- 56 F7.3 deg RAdeg Right Ascension (ICRS) at Ep=2016.0
58- 64 F7.3 deg DEdeg Declination (ICRS) at Ep=2016.0
66- 70 F5.2 mag Gmag ? Apparent magnitude in Gaia G band
72- 76 F5.2 mag BP-RP ? Gaia BP-RP colour
78- 81 F4.2 --- RUWE Renormalised unit weight error (ruwe)
83- 88 F6.3 mas Plx Gaia DR3 parallax (1)
90- 94 F5.3 mas e_Plx Gaia DR3 parallax uncertainty (2)
96-100 F5.2 arcsec Ang-Sep Angular distance to the nebular centre (3)
102 A1 --- Group [ABC] Identification reliability group (4)
104-107 F4.2 mag AV Interstellar extinction in V magnitude (5)
109-114 F6.3 mag (BP-RP)0 ? De-reddened Gaia BP-RP colour
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Note (1): values corrected according to Lindegren et al. (2021A&A...649A...2L 2021A&A...649A...2L).
Note (2): values corrected according to El-Badry et al. (2021MNRAS.506.2269E 2021MNRAS.506.2269E).
Note (3): nebular center is set by coordinates in Weidmann et al.
(2020A&A...640A..10W 2020A&A...640A..10W, cat. J/A+A/640/A10); Maciel et al. (2015RMxAA..51..165M 2015RMxAA..51..165M),
Frew et al. (2013MNRAS.431....2F 2013MNRAS.431....2F, Cat. J/MNRAS/431/2);
Chornay & Walton (2021A&A...656A.110C 2021A&A...656A.110C, Cat. J/A+A/656/A110).
Note (4): defined reliability groups: A, B or C.
Note (5): values taken from:
Green et al. (2019ApJ...887...93G 2019ApJ...887...93G),
Marshall et al. (2006A&A...453..635M 2006A&A...453..635M, Cat. J/A+A/453/635),
and Schlegel et al. (1998ApJ...500..525S 1998ApJ...500..525S).
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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 Name given in PNG nomenclature
13- 29 A17 --- Name Common name
31- 37 F7.2 arcsec Radius Nebular geometric mean angular radius (1)
39- 43 F5.2 0.1mW/m2/sr logS H-alpha surface brightness (2)
45- 48 F4.2 0.1mW/m2/sr e_logS H-alpha surface brightness uncertainty (2)
50- 53 F4.2 mag E(B-V) Reddening (2)
55- 58 F4.2 mag e_E(B-V) Reddening uncertainty
60- 64 F5.1 km/s Vpec ? Peculiar velocity
66- 70 F5.1 km/s e_Vpec ? Peculiar velocity uncertainty
72- 76 F5.2 kpc D Heliocentric distance (3)
78- 81 F4.2 kpc E_D Heliocentric distance upper error (3)
83- 86 F4.2 kpc e_D Heliocentric distance lower error (3)
88- 92 F5.2 kpc R Galactocentric distance (4)
94- 97 F4.2 kpc E_R Galactocentric distance upper error (4)
99-102 F4.2 kpc e_R Galactocentric distance lower error (4)
104-109 F6.2 kpc Rx Galactocentric distance x-component (5)
111-114 F4.2 kpc E_Rx Rx upper error (5)
116-119 F4.2 kpc e_Rx Rx lower error (5)
121-126 F6.2 kpc Ry Galactocentric distance y-component (5)
128-131 F4.2 kpc E_Ry Ry upper error (5)
133-136 F4.2 kpc e_Ry Ry lower error (5)
138-143 F6.2 kpc Rz Galactocentric distance z-component (5)
145-148 F4.2 kpc E_Rz Rz upper error (5)
150-153 F4.2 kpc e_Rz Rz lower error (5)
155 A1 --- Flag [*] CSPN identification flag (6)
157-160 F4.2 --- OH ? Oxygen abundance in log(O/H)+12 (7)
162-165 F4.2 --- e_OH ? Oxygen abundance uncertainty (7)
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Note (1): values obtained from Frew et al. (2016MNRAS.455.1459F 2016MNRAS.455.1459F);
Tylenda et al. (2003A&A...405..627T 2003A&A...405..627T, Cat. J/A+A/405/627);
Stanghellini et al. (2008ApJ...689..194S 2008ApJ...689..194S);
Acker et al. (1992secg.book.....A 1992secg.book.....A, Cat. V/84)
Note (2): values obtained from Frew et al. (2016MNRAS.455.1459F 2016MNRAS.455.1459F).
Note (3): from the Bayesian method with the recalibrated Hα surface
brightness-radius relation for planetary nebulae using Gaia DR3 as the prior
and the likelihood from the Gaia DR3 parallax.
Note (4): computed from the posterior distributions of the heliocentric
distances.
Note (5): computed from the posterior distributions of the Galactocentric
distances.
Note (6): central stars identified in Gaia DR3 are marked with '*'.
Note (7): values obtained from Stanghellini et al. (2018ApJ...862...45S 2018ApJ...862...45S);
Bucciarelli & Stanghellini (2023A&A...680A.104B 2023A&A...680A.104B, Cat. J/A+A/680/A104).
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Acknowledgements:
Oscar Cavichia, cavichia(at)unifei.edu.br
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 01-Jun-2026