Abstract

PHILLIPS, J. P.. The problem with reddening distances to planetary nebulae. Rev. mex. astron. astrofis [online]. 2006, vol.42, n.2, pp.229-239. ISSN 0185-1101.

It is noted that the vast majority of Galactic PNe are located outside of the interstellar reddening layer, to the extent that local gradients in E_B-V are low to undetectable. This is likely to invalidate certain previous estimates of their reddening distances D_RED. It also means that larger scale analyses, such as those of Pottasch (1984) and Acker (1973), lead to values of D_RED which are significantly too small. A similar critique applies to analyses based on measures of Na D-line absorption, and it seems likely that most of the distances of Napiwotzki & Schönberner (1995) are similarly in error.

Keywords : ISM [JETS AND OUTFLOWS]; PLANETARY NEBULAE [GENERAL].