IPHAS extinction distances to Planetary Nebulae

TL;DR

This paper applies the extinction method using IPHAS survey data to determine distances to 70 planetary nebulae, improving distance estimates and comparing them with existing statistical scales.

Contribution

It introduces a new application of the extinction method with IPHAS data to derive more reliable distances for a large sample of planetary nebulae.

Findings

Extinction distances for 70 PNe were successfully determined.

Comparison shows consistency and discrepancies with existing statistical distance scales.

The method's main sources of error are discussed in detail.

Abstract

The determination of reliable distances to Planetary Nebulae (PNe) is one of the major limitations in the study of this class of objects in the Galaxy. The availability of new photometric surveys such as IPHAS covering large portions of the sky gives us the opportunity to apply the "extinction method" to determine distances of a large number of objects. The technique is applied to a sample of 137 PNe located between -5 and 5 degrees in Galactic latitude, and between 29.52 and 215.49 degrees in longitude. The characteristics of the distance-extinction method and the main sources of errors are carefully discussed. The data on the extinction of the PNe available in the literature, complemented by new observations, allow us to determine extinction distances for 70 PNe. A comparison with statistical distance scales from different authors is presented.