The extinction distances for over a thousand planetary nebulae with Gaia measurements

TL;DR

This paper presents a large, homogeneous catalogue of planetary nebula distances derived from Gaia DR3 data, refining extinction-distance measurements and improving distance estimates for over a thousand PNe.

Contribution

It introduces a Gaia-based extinction-distance method combining an improved blue-edge approach with an extinction-jump model, expanding the traditional extinction method to higher Galactic latitudes.

Findings

Distances for 1,066 PNe with median 13% uncertainty

Identification of likely CSPN misidentifications in some PNe

Largest homogeneous set of extinction-based PN distances to date

Abstract

Although Gaia has identified the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) for about 70% of known Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe), reliable distance estimates remain incomplete, with fewer than one quarter having accurate parallaxes. Meanwhile, classical extinction-distance samples include only about 70 objects, corresponding to 1.8% of the Galactic PN population. We aim to construct a large and homogeneous catalogue of PN distances by refining extinction-distance measurements with Gaia DR3, providing an independent complement to CSPN parallax-based distances. We develop a Gaia-based extinction-distance method by combining an improved blue-edge approach with an extinction-jump model. PN distances are derived from stellar extinction jumps in line-of-sight extinction-distance profiles and are further constrained by comparisons with published distances, the spatial distribution of stars relative to the PN centre, and the PN radius-distance relation. We obtain distances for 1,066 PNe with a median relative uncertainty of 13%, with about 87% of the sample having uncertainties below 20%. The catalogue includes 765 PNe whose CSPN parallaxes have uncertainties greater than 20% and 128 PNe without CSPN parallaxes. This method complements CSPN parallax-based approaches and extends the traditional extinction-based method to higher Galactic latitudes. For PNe with discrepant literature distances, it helps identify the more reliable estimates and assess CSPN identifications. We find a likely misidentification of the reported CSPN for Fr2-36 and analyse 33 PNe with two CSPN candidates, suggesting improved identifications for 15 objects. This catalogue represents the largest homogeneous set of extinction-based PN distances to date and provides a robust benchmark for studies of Galactic structure, PN populations, and interstellar extinction.