Alexander Csukai

Evaluating Extinctions to the Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae

Planetary nebulae are wondrous but poorly characterised astrophysical objects. To be properly studied, the emission from planetary nebulae must be described, accounting for interstellar extinction. Unfortunately, conventional methods of estimating extinction to PNe are not in good agreement. The advent of Gaia has made possible the systematic identification of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN). We suggest using these CSPN to gauge the interstellar extinction to their associated PNe. We have used the PySSED program to collate photometry measurements from available stellar sky surveys, producing SEDs of the CSPN. We demonstrate that the intrinsic shape of CSPN spectra has a weak dependence on temperature and composition, so any deviation from the standard spectral shape can be attributed to interstellar dust extinction. We can therefore use our SEDs to fit extinction values to planetary nebulae. We find that our results are in good agreement with those from dust maps, with greater resolution and more sensitivity to higher extinction values.