The proper motion distance to the remarkable bipolar planetary nebula KjPn 8
Abstract
The expansion proper motions of the high-speed groups of knots A1 and A2 at the tips of the inner bipolar lobes of the extraordinary bipolar nebula KjPn 8 have been measured as 34+/-3 mas yr^-1 by comparing their images on a Palomar Observatory Sky Survey 1954 plate with one taken in 1991. This value has been used within a bowshock model for the generation of the emisson line knots to derive a distance to KjPn 8 of D=1600+/-230 pc. A kinematical age of T=3400+/-300 yr for the two groups of knots is given directly by this measurement of proper motion and the 115-arcsec projected angular distance of the knots from the nebular core.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- November 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/292.1.L11
- Bibcode:
- 1997MNRAS.292L..11M
- Keywords:
-
- Planetary Nebulae;
- Distance;
- Motion;
- Kinematics;
- Astronomical Photography;
- Astronomy;
- PLANETARY NEBULAE: INDIVIDUAL: KJPN 8