Distances of planetary nebulae

Like the Shklovsky (constant mass) distance method, our relationship requires only radio flux density and angular size measurements, which are widely available in the literature. Based on models matching the overall Galactic distribution of PNe, we determine how PNe observed in the direction of the Galactic center are actually distributed relative to the bulge in order to establish the usefulness of these PNe for distance studies.

We then use the bulge PNe along with PNe with independent distances to establish, calibrate, and test the accuracy of the method. When compared to the best available data our distance method appears to yield distance errors consistent with a scatter of <25% (1{sigma}). And, based on our models scaled to local PNe, we find a mean Galactic center distance of 8.3+/-2.6kpc for the bulge PNe.