Analysis of Multiple Shell Planetary Nebulae Based on HST/WFPC2 Extended 2D Diagnostic Diagrams

Abstract

The investigation of gaseous nebulae, emitting in forbidden lines, is often based extensively on diagnostic diagrams. The special physics of these lines often allows for disentangling with a few line ratios normally coupled thermodynamic parameters like electron temperature, density and properties of the photo-ionizing radiation field. Diagnostic diagrams are usually used for the investigation of planetary nebulae as a total. We investigated the extension of such integrated properties towards spatially resolved 2D diagnostics, using Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (HST/WFPC2) narrow band images. For this purpose, we also derived a method to isolate pure Hα emission from the [N ii] contamination as normally suffering in the F656N HST/WFPC2 filter.