A Mid‐infrared Imaging Survey of Proto–Planetary Nebula Candidates

Abstract

We present the data from a mid-infrared (MIR) imaging survey of 66 proto-planetary nebula candidates using two MIR cameras (MIRAC2 and Berkcam) at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope. The goal of this survey is to determine the size, flux, and morphology of the MIR emission regions, which sample the inner regions of the circumstellar dust shells of proto-planetary nebulae. We imaged these proto-planetary nebulae with narrowband filters(Deltalambda/lambda~10%) at wavelengths of notable dust features. With our typical angular resolution of 1", we resolve 17 sources, find 48 objects unresolved, and do not detect one source. For several sources we checked optical and infrared associations and positions of the sources. In table format, we list the size and flux measurements for all of the detected objects and show figures of all of the resolved sources. The proto-planetary nebula candidate sample includes, in addition to the predominant proto-planetary nebulae, extreme asymptotic giant branch stars, young planetary nebulae, a supergiant, and a luminous blue variable. We find that dust shells that are cooler (T~150 K) and brighter in the infrared are more easily resolved. Eleven of the seventeen resolved sources are extended and fall into one of two types of MIR morphological classes: core/elliptical or toroidal. Core/elliptical structures show unresolved cores with lower surface brightness elliptical nebulae. Toroidal structures show limb-brightened peaks suggesting equatorial density enhancements. We argue that core/ellipticals have denser dust shells than toroidals.