Kinematic Distance of Galactic Planetary Nebulae

TL;DR

This paper determines the distances to 18 planetary nebulae using HI absorption spectra, providing first-time measurements for most and significantly reducing uncertainties compared to previous methods.

Contribution

It introduces a new method for estimating kinematic distances of planetary nebulae with improved accuracy and applies it to 18 objects, many of which are measured for the first time.

Findings

15 PNe have first-time kinematic distance measurements.

Distance uncertainties are reduced to 10-50%, much smaller than previous estimates.

Confirmed that PN G030.2-00.1 is not a planetary nebula.

Abstract

We construct \HI~absorption spectra for 18 planetary nebulae (PNe) and their background sources using the data from the International Galactic Plane Survey. We estimate the kinematic distances of these PNe, among which 15 objects' kinematic distances are obtained for the first time. The distance uncertainties of 13 PNe range from 10% to 50%, which is a significant improvement with uncertainties of a factor two or three smaller than most of previous distance measurements. We confirm that PN G030.2-00.1 is not a PN because of its large distance found here.