The Circumstellar Extinction of Planetary Nebulae

We analyze the dependence of circumstellar extinction on core mass for the brightest planetary nebulae (PNs) in the Magellanic Clouds and M31. We show that in all three galaxies, a statistically significant correlation exists between the two quantities, such that high-core mass objects have greater extinction. We model this behavior and show that the relation is a simple consequence of the greater mass loss and faster evolution times of high-mass stars. The relation is important because it provides a natural explanation for the invariance of the [O III] λ5007 planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) with population age: bright Population I PNs are extinguished below the cutoff of the PNLF. It also explains the counter-intuitive observation that intrinsically luminous Population I PNs often appear fainter than PNs from older, low-mass progenitors.