H$\alpha$ fluxes and extinction distances for planetary nebulae in the IPHAS survey of the Northern Galactic Plane

TL;DR

This study provides Hα flux measurements and estimates of distances and extinctions for 197 planetary nebulae in the Northern Galactic Plane using IPHAS survey data and multiple 3D dust mapping methods.

Contribution

It introduces new Hα flux measurements for a large sample of PNe and compares multiple extinction-distance methods, validating them against Gaia DR2 distances.

Findings

Hα fluxes measured for 197 PNe from IPHAS data.

The H-MEAD algorithm and the surface brightness relation best match Gaia distances.

Distances derived from extinction mapping are consistent with Gaia for several PNe.

Abstract

We report H$\alpha$ filter photometry for 197 northern hemisphere planetary nebulae (PNe) obtained using imaging data from the IPHAS survey. H$\alpha$+[N II] fluxes were measured for 46 confirmed or possible PNe discovered by the IPHAS survey and for 151 previously catalogued PNe that fell within the area of the northern Galactic Plane surveyed by IPHAS. After correcting for [N II] emission admitted by the IPHAS H$\alpha$ filter, the resulting H$\alpha$ fluxes were combined with published radio free-free fluxes and H$\beta$ fluxes, in order to estimate mean optical extinctions to 143 PNe using ratios involving their integrated Balmer line fluxes and their extinction-free radio fluxes. Distances to the PNe were then estimated using three different 3D interstellar dust extinction mapping methods, including the IPHAS-based H-MEAD algorithm of Sale (2014). These methods were used to plot dust extinction versus distance relationships for the lines of sight to the PNe; the intercepts with the derived dust optical extinctions allowed distances to the PNe to be inferred. For 17 of the PNe in our sample reliable Gaia DR2 distances were available and these have been compared with the distances derived using three different extinction mapping algorithms as well as with distances from the nebular radius vs. H$\alpha$ surface brightness relation of Frew et al. (2016). That relation and the H-MEAD extinction mapping algorithm yielded the closest agreement with the Gaia DR2 distances.