The Relative Sizes of Planetary Nebulae

摘要

The sizes of planetary nebulae are poorly known, principally because the distances to these sources are not very well established. We point out in the following, however, that if one is careful in selecting nebulae having particular ranges of galactic latitude, and narrow ranges of surface brightness, then it should be possible to establish mean trends in nebular diameter. We have, in this way, been able to determine that where brightness temperatures are the same, then circular and elliptical sources, and the nuclei of bipolar nebulae (BPNe) all have closely similar mean dimensions. It is also likely that circular and elliptical sources have closely similar masses (the case of the BPNe is less clear). Finally, we note that halos are typically ∼3 times larger than circular and elliptical PNe, and the lobes of BPNe are ∼5 times as large, making the latter envelopes the largest of all nebular structures.