Planetary nebulae as tracers of accreted stellar populations in massive galaxies in groups and clusters
: Hartke, Johanna
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
: 2025
Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
: 1673373
: 12
: 2296-987X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2025.1673373
: https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2025.1673373
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/506047822
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are valuable spatial and kinematic tracers of nearby galaxies. In this mini-review, I focus on their role in tracing the halo and intra-cluster/intra-group light assembly in groups and clusters of galaxies within 100 Mpc and, in particular, the link between characteristic PN metrics such as the (Formula presented.) -parameter and the PN luminosity function and changes from the underlying in situ to ex-situ stellar populations. These results from nearby groups and clusters are placed into context with integral-field spectroscopic surveys of galaxies, which allow the co-spatial measurement of PN and stellar population properties. I provide an outlook on upcoming instrumentation that will provide new opportunities for the study of extragalactic PN populations. I address the challenges of reconciling observations of extragalactic PN populations with predictions from stellar evolution models and how revised late-stellar-evolution models have alleviated some of the tensions between observations and theory. © © 2025 Hartke.
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The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. JH acknowledges the support from the Turku Collegium for Science, Medicine and Technology (TCSMT) in the form of a starting grant and the financial support from the Visitor and Mobility program of the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA).
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