_version_ 1866909984391954432
author Liberato, Giovanna
Gonçalves, Denise R.
Cortesi, Arianna
Núñez, Luis Lomelí
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Akras, Stavros
Soto, Luis A. Gutiérrez
Fragkou, Vasiliki
Grossi, Marco
Telles, Eduardo
Candal, Alvaro Alvarez
Esteban, Fran Jiménez
Cenarro, A. J.
Hornillos, D. Cristóbal
Monteagudo, C. Hernández
Sanjuan, C. López
Franch, A. Marín
Moles, M.
Varela, J.
Ramió, H. Vázquez
Dupke, R. A.
Sodré Jr., L.
Angulo, R. E.
Collaboration, the J-PLUS
author_facet Liberato, Giovanna
Gonçalves, Denise R.
Cortesi, Arianna
Núñez, Luis Lomelí
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Akras, Stavros
Soto, Luis A. Gutiérrez
Fragkou, Vasiliki
Grossi, Marco
Telles, Eduardo
Candal, Alvaro Alvarez
Esteban, Fran Jiménez
Cenarro, A. J.
Hornillos, D. Cristóbal
Monteagudo, C. Hernández
Sanjuan, C. López
Franch, A. Marín
Moles, M.
Varela, J.
Ramió, H. Vázquez
Dupke, R. A.
Sodré Jr., L.
Angulo, R. E.
Collaboration, the J-PLUS
contents In this pilot study, we investigate the PN population in M~33, a nearby spiral galaxy ($\simeq 840$~kpc), using data from the DR3 of the Javalambre-Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS), a 12-band photometric dataset extensively used to identify H$α$ line emitters. From the 143 known PNe of M~33, the photometry of only 13 are present in the J-PLUS catalog, as available on the J-PLUS portal. With the aim of recovering a larger fraction of the M~33 PN population, the software SExtractor is adopted to extract the sources in the J-PLUS images and obtain the photometric data for the PNe known in the literature, performing PSF photometry when possible. With this procedure the photometry of 98 PNe was obtained using H$α$ image as detection image, including the 13 already present in the J-PLUS catalog. Using diagnostic color-color diagrams (DCCDs) based on criteria developed for Milky Way halo PNe, we identified 16 sources with PN-like colors. Cross-match with existing catalogs revealed that most of these candidates are H II regions, though one source remains unidentified. Additionally, analyzing their full width at half maximum, most of them would not be PN candidates. This highlights the method's ability to select emission-line objects but also underscores the challenge of distinguishing PNe from contaminants using photometry alone. The J-PLUS colors of 98 known PNe were analyzed, together with literature information on their radial velocities, resulting in the identification of one possible halo PN. This is the first paper which aims at detecting extragalactic PNe in multi-band surveys such as J-PLUS, the Southern Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) and the Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS), paving the way for similar studies in these surveys for other nearby galaxies, which lack catalogs of known PNe.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_04533
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle J-PLUS: The planetary nebula population of M 33
Liberato, Giovanna
Gonçalves, Denise R.
Cortesi, Arianna
Núñez, Luis Lomelí
Ederoclite, Alessandro
Akras, Stavros
Soto, Luis A. Gutiérrez
Fragkou, Vasiliki
Grossi, Marco
Telles, Eduardo
Candal, Alvaro Alvarez
Esteban, Fran Jiménez
Cenarro, A. J.
Hornillos, D. Cristóbal
Monteagudo, C. Hernández
Sanjuan, C. López
Franch, A. Marín
Moles, M.
Varela, J.
Ramió, H. Vázquez
Dupke, R. A.
Sodré Jr., L.
Angulo, R. E.
Collaboration, the J-PLUS
Astrophysics of Galaxies
In this pilot study, we investigate the PN population in M~33, a nearby spiral galaxy ($\simeq 840$~kpc), using data from the DR3 of the Javalambre-Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS), a 12-band photometric dataset extensively used to identify H$α$ line emitters. From the 143 known PNe of M~33, the photometry of only 13 are present in the J-PLUS catalog, as available on the J-PLUS portal. With the aim of recovering a larger fraction of the M~33 PN population, the software SExtractor is adopted to extract the sources in the J-PLUS images and obtain the photometric data for the PNe known in the literature, performing PSF photometry when possible. With this procedure the photometry of 98 PNe was obtained using H$α$ image as detection image, including the 13 already present in the J-PLUS catalog. Using diagnostic color-color diagrams (DCCDs) based on criteria developed for Milky Way halo PNe, we identified 16 sources with PN-like colors. Cross-match with existing catalogs revealed that most of these candidates are H II regions, though one source remains unidentified. Additionally, analyzing their full width at half maximum, most of them would not be PN candidates. This highlights the method's ability to select emission-line objects but also underscores the challenge of distinguishing PNe from contaminants using photometry alone. The J-PLUS colors of 98 known PNe were analyzed, together with literature information on their radial velocities, resulting in the identification of one possible halo PN. This is the first paper which aims at detecting extragalactic PNe in multi-band surveys such as J-PLUS, the Southern Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) and the Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS), paving the way for similar studies in these surveys for other nearby galaxies, which lack catalogs of known PNe.
title J-PLUS: The planetary nebula population of M 33
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04533