Discovery of Extended Structures around Two Evolved Planetary Nebulae M 2-55 and Abell 2 [SSA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2003.05616


We report a multi-wavelength study of two evolved planetary nebulae (PNs) M 2-55 and Abell 2. Deep optical narrow-band images ([O III], H?, and [N II]) of M 2-55 reveal two pairs of bipolar lobes and a new faint arc-like structure. This arc-shaped filament around M 2-55 appears a well-defined boundary from southwest to southeast, strongly suggesting that this nebula is in interaction with its surrounding interstellar medium. From the imaging data of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) all-sky survey, we discovered extensive mid-infrared halos around these PNs, which are approximately twice larger than their main nebulae seen in the visible. We also present a mid-resolution optical spectrum of M 2-55, which shows that it is a high-excitation evolved PN with a low electron density of 250 cm^-3. Furthermore, we investigate the properties of these nebulae from their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) by means of archival data.

Read this paper on arXiv…

C. Hsia, Y. Zhang, X. Zhang, et. al.
Fri, 13 Mar 20
13/53

Comments: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics