Bibcode
Miller, T. R.; Henry, Richard B. C.; Dufour, Reginald J.; Kwitter, Karen B.; Shaw, Richard A.; Balick, Bruce; Corradi, R. L. M.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #227, id.302.01
Advertised on:
1
2016
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We present an analysis of seven spatially resolved planetary nebulae
(PNe), NGC 2440, NGC 3242, NGC 5315, NGC 5882, NGC 7662, IC 2165, and IC
3568, from observations in the Cycle 19 program GO 12600 using HST STIS.
These seven observations cover the wavelength range 1150-10,270 Å
with 0.2 and 0.5 arcsec wide slits, and are co-spatial to within 0.1
arcsec along a 25 arcsec length across each nebula. The wavelength and
spatial coverage enabled a detailed study of physical conditions and
abundances from UV and optical line emissions (compared to only optical
lines) for these seven PNe. The first UV lines of interest are those of
carbon. The resolved lines of C III] 1906.68 and 1908.73 yielded a
direct measurement of the density within the volume occupied by
doubly-ionized carbon and other similar co-spatial ions as well as
contributed to an accurate measurement of the carbon abundance. Each PN
spectrum was divided into smaller spatial regions or segments in order
to assess inferred density variations among the regions along the entire
slit. There is a clear difference in the inferred density for several
regions of each PNe. Variations in electron temperature and chemical
abundances were also probed and shown to be completely homogeneous
within the errors. Lastly, these nebulae were modeled in detail with the
photoionization code CLOUDY. This modeling constrained the central star
parameters of temperature and luminosity and tested the effects
different density profiles have on these parameters. We gratefully
acknowledge generous support from NASA through grants related to the
Cycle 19 program GO 12600, as well as from the University of Oklahoma.