The planetary nebula system and dynamics of NGC 5128. I - Planetary nebulae as standard candles

We present the result of a planetary nebula (PN) survey of the nearby giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 performed with CCD cameras at the prime focus of the CTIO 4 m telescope. By comparing CCD images centered on the characteristic emission line forbidden O III 5007 A and on the adjacent continuum, w...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Astrophysical journal 1993-09, Vol.414 (2), p.463-473
Hauptverfasser: Hui, Xiaohui, Ford, Holland C., Ciardullo, Robin, Jacoby, George H.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:We present the result of a planetary nebula (PN) survey of the nearby giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 performed with CCD cameras at the prime focus of the CTIO 4 m telescope. By comparing CCD images centered on the characteristic emission line forbidden O III 5007 A and on the adjacent continuum, we identify a total of 785 PNs in areas extending 20 kpc along the photometric major axis and covering the whole galaxy to 10 kpc. From these data, we form a complete sample of 224 PNs extending to a dereddened limiting magnitude of m5007 = 24.8, which extends 1.5 mag down the PN luminosity function (PNLF). Adopting a foreground extinction of E(B-V) = 0.1, we derive a distance to the galaxy of 3.5 +/- 0.2 Mpc, in excellent agreement with the surface brightness fluctuation method. No population effect on the bright cutoff of PNLF is observed in the isophotal radius range of 2-16 kpc, but the luminosity specific PN density seems to increase with radius inside of 7 kpc, in agreement with the alpha(2.5)-color relation observed for other galaxies.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/173093