Discovery of new planetary nebulae in the Small Magellanic Cloud

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of six new planetary nebulae in the Small Magellanic Cloud, significantly expanding the known population and enabling better understanding of the galaxy's chemical evolution.

Contribution

The study introduces six newly identified planetary nebulae in the SMC, increasing the known count and enhancing the potential for astrophysical insights.

Findings

6 new planetary nebulae discovered in the SMC

Potential 50% increase in known SMC PNe after follow-up

Improved data for SMC's chemical evolution and kinematics

Abstract

We present six new planetary nebulae (PNe) discovered in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from deep UK Schmidt telescope (UKST) narrow band Halpha and broad-band short-red "SR" continuum images and confirmed spectroscopically. These 6 preliminary discoveries provide a 6% increase to the previously known SMC PN population of ~100. Once spectroscopic follow-up of all our newly identified candidates is complete, we expect to increase the total number of known SMC PNe by up to 50%. This will permit a significant improvement to determination of the SMC PN luminosity function (PNLF) and enable further insights into the chemical evolution and kinematics of the SMC PN population.