Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae (xPNe). Chemical evolution and assembly histories of nearby galaxies using Oxygen and Argon abundances. From the local universe to cosmic dawn

TL;DR

This paper discusses how extragalactic planetary nebulae (xPNe) can be used to study the chemical evolution and assembly histories of nearby galaxies by analyzing oxygen and argon abundances, extending galactic archaeology to the early universe.

Contribution

It introduces the use of xPNe with advanced observational facilities to trace elemental abundances and kinematics, providing new insights into galaxy formation and evolution.

Findings

xPNe reveal signatures of galaxy mergers and interactions.

Oxygen and Argon abundances trace ancient star formation.

Enhanced observational capabilities improve galactic archaeology studies.

Abstract

How galaxies formed and evolved in the expanding Universe is the main science goal of Near-Field Cosmology research. Studies of the properties of galaxies' resolved stars open a widow on their ancient galactic components, probing star formation during epochs more than 10 billion years ago. Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae (xPNe) can help decipher the signatures of mergers and interactions persisting over many dynamical times by tracing elemental abundances coupled with their kinematics and spatial distributions. With new facilities, reaching higher angular resolution, area coverage and sensitivity, one can use xPNe to map Oxygen and Argon element abundances, in addition to their kinematics, to extend the Galactic Archeology investigation to the oldest stellar aggregates in our Local Universe.