Extragalactic planetary nebulae -- tracers of kinematics and stellar populations out to 100 Mpc

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Authors: Johanna Hartke, M. Arnaboldi, C. Pulsoni, Souradeep Bhattacharya, Martin Bureau, Enrico Congiu, Guy Flint, Ortwin Gerhard, Martin Roth, Azlizan A. Soemitro, Chiara Spiniello, Lucas M. Valenzuela
+2 more Peter Weilbacher, Nancy Yang
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Extragalactic planetary nebulae (xPNe) in galaxies beyond the Local Universe serve as discrete tracers for studying the element abundances and kinematics of galaxies covering a wide range of morphologies and masses at a variety of angular distances, from the centre well out into their haloes. They are direct stellar probes to identify the galaxy progenitors of haloes and the intracluster light. Even with new facilities, reaching higher angular resolution and sensitivity, xPNe are the only stellar tracers that can be directly and singularly detected and characterised out to 100 Mpc distance, making them crucial for tracing halo and intracluster light assembly. New wide-field spectroscopic instruments at 10+meter-class telescopes will allow the unprecedented characterisation of xPN populations from galaxy centres to their diffuse outskirts. Panoramic integral-field spectroscopy will enable the simultaneous study of xPN and stellar population properties, establishing their use as age- and metallicity-tracers while also improving post-AGB stellar evolution models.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Stellar planetary and galactic studies Galaxies: Formation Evolution Phenomena Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
16 January 2026
Document type
Preprint