Planetary Nebulae as Tracers of Chemical Evolution
Planetary Nebulae as Tracers of Chemical Evolution
Most of what we know about the chemical abundances in other galaxies
comes from studying the emission lines of their H II regions. The
emission lines of planetary nebulae yield similar abundance information, but
with one critical difference. While H II regions let you study the
chemical composition of the interstellar medium today, planetary nebulae
allow you look back in time and probe the chemistry of the time when
the progenitor star was born. By age-dating planetaries (a difficult
proposition) and determining their abundances, one can follow the history
of chemical evolution from ~ 10 Gyrs ago to the present day.
For further information check out our
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Publications from abundance measurements of PN in other galaxies
![M31 PN Spectra]](http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/rbc/m31pn.jpg)
Web page by Robin Ciardullo ( rbc@astro.psu.edu )
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Penn State University