The Emission Nebula Sh 2-174: A Radio Investigation of the Surrounding Region

TL;DR

This study uses radio polarization, intensity, and HI imaging to investigate the nature and environmental interactions of the emission nebula Sh 2-174, revealing evidence of a planetary nebula interacting with the interstellar medium and estimating its motion and magnetic field.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed radio polarization and HI analysis of Sh 2-174, demonstrating PN-ISM interaction and estimating the nebula's velocity and magnetic field strength.

Findings

Sh 2-174 is at the center of a 1.2° x 0.4° HI cloud.

Radio images reveal ionized halo and plateau around Sh 2-174.

Faraday-rotation structures indicate magnetic field deflection and PN-ISM interaction.

Abstract

Sh 2-174 is believed to be either a planetary nebula (PN) or ionized, ambient interstellar medium (ISM). We present in this paper 1420 MHz polarization, 1420 MHz total intensity (Stokes-I), and neutral hydrogen (HI) images of the region around Sh 2-174. The radio images address not only the nature of the object, but also the history of the relationship between Sh 2-174 and its surrounding environment. The HI images show that Sh 2-174 sits presently at the center of a 1.2 deg x 0.4 deg cloud. The Stokes-I image shows thermal emission peaks coincident with the R-band optical nebula, as well as low-surface-brightness emission from an ionized "halo" around Sh 2-174 and from an ionized "plateau" extending southeast from the cloud. The polarization images reveal Faraday-rotation structures along the projected trajectory of Sh 2-174, including a high-contrast structure with "arms" that run precisely along the eastern edge of the HI cloud and a wide central region which merges with the downstream edge of Sh 2-174. The high-contrast structure is consistent with an ionized tail which has both early-epoch (before Sh 2-174 entered the cloud) and present-epoch (after Sh 2-174 entered the cloud) components. Furthermore, our rotation-measure analysis indicates that the ISM magnetic field is deflected at the leading edge of Sh 2-174. The downstream tail and upstream field deflection point to a PN-ISM interaction. Our estimated space velocity for the host white dwarf (GD~561) demonstrates that Sh 2-174 entered the cloud approximately 27,000 yr ago, and gives a PN-ISM interaction timescale less than approximately 200,000 yr. We estimate an ambient magnetic field in the cloud of 11 +/- 3 microGauss.