Poster Title: Planetary nebulae and stellar populations: kinematics, ages and chemical composition
Abstract: W. J. Maciel, R. D. D. Costa, L. G. Lago IAG/USP
Planetary nebulae are interesting objects for the study of stellar populations, as they are the offspring of stars with a wide range of masses, and thus include objects of different populations. Also, in view of their high intrinsic brightness they can be observed in different galactic subsystems, such as the disk, bulge and halo, and in many nearby galaxies, so that the differences of the stellar populations in these systems can be highlighted. In this work, we have taken into account a large sample of galactic nebulae for which we have determined the distances and chemical composition. Since radial velocities are available for many objects, we can associate their spatial distribution and kinematical properties to the chemical composition, so that different stellar populations can be attributed with a stronger confidence. Of particular importance in this respect are the abundance gradients as derived from planetary nebulae and other objects, such as HII regions and hot stars, and the galactic rotation curve. Our results are compared with the predictions of previous classification systems of planetary nebulae. We conclude that the observed chemical composition, the estimated ages and the kinematical properties of these objects all form a consistent scheme that can be explained by the expected variations of these quantities in the different stellar populations of the Galaxy.
Link to poster: N/A