The Dusty Side of Planetary Nebulae: a HerPlaNS view

Toshiya Ueta, Djazia Ladjal and the HerPlaNS consortium

University of Denver, USA

HerPlaNS (Herschel Planetary Nebula Survey) is a far-IR imaging/spectroscopic survey of planetary nebulae (PNe) using the Herschel Space Observatory. In this presentation, we review our investigation into the physical properties of the cold dust component of the target PNe. We find that the far-IR surface brightness emission from PNe is generally dominated by thermal dust emission, which exhibits particular characteristics in terms of the dust emissivity and dust temperature compared with dust grains found elsewhere. The PN dust displays little variation in the emissivity while a large spread in the temperature, suggesting the presence of rather homogeneous dust chemistry and size distribution in the circumstellar environs.

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