We report the first detections of OH+emission in planetary nebulae (PNe). As part of an imaging and spectroscopy survey of 11 PNe in the far-IR using the PACS and SPIRE instruments aboard the... Show moreWe report the first detections of OH+emission in planetary nebulae (PNe). As part of an imaging and spectroscopy survey of 11 PNe in the far-IR using the PACS and SPIRE instruments aboard the HerschelSpace Observatory, we performed a line survey in these PNe over the entire spectral range between 51μm and 672μm to look for new detections. The rotational emission lines of OH+ at 152.99, 290.20, 308.48, and 329.77μm were detected in the spectra of three planetary nebulae: NGC 6445,NGC 6720, andNGC 6781. Excitation temperatures and column densities derived from these lines are in the range of 27–47 K and 2E10–4E11cm^-2, respectively. In PNe, the OH+ rotational line emission appears to be produced in the photodissociation region (PDR) in these objects. The emission of OH+ is observed only in PNe with hot central stars (Teff>100 000 K), suggesting that high-energy photons may play a role in OH+ formation and its line excitation in these objects, as seems to be the case for ultraluminous galaxies. Show less
Ueta, T.; Ladjal, D.; Exter, K.M.; Otsuka, M.; Szczerba, R.; Siódmiak, N.; ... ; Yamamura, I. 2014
Context. This is the first of a series of investigations into far-IR characteristics of 11 planetary nebulae (PNe) under the Herschel Space Observatory open time 1 program, Herschel Planetary... Show moreContext. This is the first of a series of investigations into far-IR characteristics of 11 planetary nebulae (PNe) under the Herschel Space Observatory open time 1 program, Herschel Planetary Nebula Survey (HerPlaNS).Aims: Using the HerPlaNS data set, we look into the PN energetics and variations of the physical conditions within the target nebulae. In the present work, we provide an overview of the survey, data acquisition and processing, and resulting data products.Methods: We performed (1) PACS/SPIRE broadband imaging to determine the spatial distribution of the cold dust component in the target PNe and (2) PACS/SPIRE spectral-energy-distribution and line spectroscopy to determine the spatial distribution of the gas component in the target PNe.Results: For the case ofNGC 6781, the broadband maps confirm the nearly pole-on barrel structure of the amorphous carbon-rich dust shell and the surrounding halo having temperatures of 26-40 K. The PACS/SPIRE multiposition spectra show spatial variations of far-IR lines that reflect the physical stratification of the nebula. We demonstrate that spatially resolved far-IR line diagnostics yield the (Te, ne) profiles, from which distributions of ionized, atomic, and molecular gases can be determined. Direct comparison of the dust and gas column mass maps constrained by the HerPlaNS data allows to construct an empirical gas-to-dust mass ratio map, which shows a range of ratios with the median of 195 ± 110. The present analysis yields estimates of the total mass of the shell to be 0.86 M⊙, consisting of 0.54 M⊙ of ionized gas, 0.12 M⊙ of atomic gas, 0.2 M⊙ of molecular gas, and 4 × 10-3M⊙ of dust grains. These estimates also suggest that the central star of about 1.5 M⊙ initial mass is terminating its PN evolution onto the white dwarf cooling track. Conclusions: The HerPlaNS data provide various diagnostics for both the dust and gas components in a spatially resolved manner. In the forthcoming papers of the HerPlaNS series we will explore the HerPlaNS data set fully for the entire sample of 11 PNe. Show less
