New catalog of distances to planetary nebulae based on Gaia parallaxes and statistical distances

Abstract

We have developed a method to determine the most reliable distances for a large group of planetary nebulae. For this purpose, we analyze the distances obtained from \textit{Gaia} parallaxes and three determinations of statistical distances. The most reliable distance is derived for 2211 objects, and uncertainties for these distances are calculated in a homogeneous way. Using our most reliable distances, we compare the distributions of Galactic heights of hydrogen-poor and hydrogen-rich central stars of planetary nebulae. We find that [WR] central stars are closer to the Galactic plane than hydrogen-rich central stars and than other hydrogen-poor central stars. The latter have a similar distribution to hydrogen-rich central stars, which is significantly different from the one of [WR] central stars. This result disagrees with the proposed evolutionary sequence for hydrogen-poor central stars.