Macquarie University, Australia
We present six new planetary nebulae (PNe) discovered in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from deep UK Schmidt telescope narrow-band Halpha and broad-band short-red continuum images and confirmed spectroscopically. These preliminary discoveries provide a 6 per cent increase to the previously known SMC PN population of ~100. Once spectroscopic follow-up of all our newly identified SMC PN candidates is complete, we expect to increase the total number of known SMC PNe by up to 50 per cent. This will permit a significant improvement to determination of the SMC PN luminosity function and enable further insights into the chemical evolution and kinematics of the SMC PN population.
Last update: