J-PLUS: Tools to identify compact planetary nebulae in the Javalambre and southern photometric local Universe surveys

¹ Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Ladeira Pedro Antonio 43, 20080-090 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e-mail: lgutierrez@astro.ufrj.br
² Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
³ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain
⁵ Observatório Nacional, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
⁶ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis 88040-900, SC, Brazil
⁷ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁸ University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, 1085 S. University Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
⁹ University of Alabama, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Gallalee Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA
¹⁰ NOAO, PO Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726, USA
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Av. Marechal Rondon, s/n, 49000-000 São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil
¹² Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
¹³ PITT PACC, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
¹⁴ Departamento de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
¹⁵ Departmento de Astrofísica, Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), ESAC Campus, Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
¹⁶ Spanish Virtual Observatory, Spain
¹⁷ Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, UK

Received: 15 April 2019
Accepted: 9 December 2019

Abstract

Context. From the approximately 3500 planetary nebulae (PNe) discovered in our Galaxy, only 14 are known to be members of the Galactic halo. Nevertheless, a systematic search for halo PNe has never been performed.

Aims. In this study, we present new photometric diagnostic tools to identify compact PNe in the Galactic halo by making use of the novel 12-filter system projects, Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) and Southern-Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS).

Methods. We reconstructed the Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric Hα Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane diagnostic diagram and propose four new ones using (i) the J-PLUS and S-PLUS synthetic photometry for a grid of photo-ionisation models of halo PNe, (ii) several observed halo PNe, as well as (iii) a number of other emission-line objects that resemble PNe. All colour–colour diagnostic diagrams are validated using two known halo PNe observed by J-PLUS during the scientific verification phase and the first data release (DR1) of S-PLUS and the DR1 of J-PLUS.

Results. By applying our criteria to the DR1s (~1190 deg²), we identified one PN candidate. However, optical follow-up spectroscopy proved it to be a H II region belonging to the UGC 5272 galaxy. Here, we also discuss the PN and two H II galaxies recovered by these selection criteria. Finally, the cross-matching with the most updated PNe catalogue (HASH) helped us to highlight the potential of these surveys, since we recover all the known PNe in the observed area.

Conclusions. The tools here proposed to identify PNe and separate them from their emission-line contaminants proved to be very efficient thanks to the combination of many colours, even when applied – like in the present work – to an automatic photometric search that is limited to compact PNe.