Vol 43, No 7 (2017)

The catalogue of protoplanetary nebulae by Vickers et al. has been supplemented with the line-of-sight velocities and proper motions of their central stars from the literature. Based on an exponential density distribution, we have estimated the vertical scale height from objects with an age less than 3 Gyr belonging to the Galactic thin disk (luminosities higher than 5000 L_⊙) to be h = 146 ± 15 pc, while from a sample of older objects (luminosities lower than 5000 L_⊙) it is h = 568 ± 42 pc. We have produced a list of 147 nebulae in which there are only the line-of-sight velocities for 55 nebulae, only the proper motions for 25 nebulae, and both line-of-sight velocities and proper motions for 67 nebulae. Based on this kinematic sample, we have estimated the Galactic rotation parameters and the residual velocity dispersions of protoplanetary nebulae as a function of their age. We have established that there is a good correlation between the kinematic properties of nebulae and their separation in luminosity proposed by Vickers. Most of the nebulae are shown to be involved in the Galactic rotation, with the circular rotation velocity at the solar distance being V₀ = 227 ± 23 km s⁻¹. The following principal semiaxes of the residual velocity dispersion ellipsoid have been found: (σ₁, σ₂, σ₃) = (47, 41, 29) km s⁻¹ from a sample of young protoplanetary nebulae (with luminosities higher than 5000 L_⊙), (σ₁, σ₂, σ₃) = (50, 38, 28) km s⁻¹ from a sample of older protoplanetary nebulae (with luminosities of 4000 L_⊙ or 3500 L_⊙), and (σ₁, σ₂, σ₃) = (91, 49, 36) km s⁻¹ from a sample of halo nebulae (with luminosities of 1700 L_⊙).

An improved version of the 3D stellar reddening map in a space with a radius of 1200 pc around the Sun and within 600 pc of the Galactic midplane is presented. As in the previous 2010 and 2012 versions of the map, photometry with an accuracy better than 0.05^m in the J and Ks bands for more than 70 million stars from the 2MASS catalogue is used in the new version. However, the data reduction technique is considerably more complicated. As before, an analysis of the distribution of stars near the main-sequence turnoff on the (J − Ks)−Ks diagram, where they form a distribution maximum, provides a basis for the method. The shift of this maximum, i.e., the mode (J − Ks), along (J − Ks) and Ks, given the spatial variations of the mean dereddened color (J − Ks)₀ of these stars, is interpreted as a growth of the reddening with increasing distance. The main distinction of the new method is that instead of the fixed mean absolute magnitude, dereddened color, distance, and reddening for each cell, the individual values of these quantities are calculated for each star by iterations when solving the system of equations relating them. This has allowed one to increase the random accuracy of the map to 0.01^m and its spatial resolution to 20 pc in coordinates and distance and to 1° in longitude and latitude. Comparison with other reddening estimates for the same spatial cells and Gaia DR1 TGAS stars shows that the constructed map is one of the best maps for the space under consideration. Its systematic errors have been estimated to be σ(E(J − Ks)) = 0.025^m, or σ(E(B − V)) = 0.04^m. The main purpose of the map is to analyze the characteristics of Galactic structures, clouds, and cloud complexes. For this purpose, the reddening map within each spatial cell has also been computed by analyzing the reddening along each line of sight.

Using data from ground-based observations of cosmic rays (CRs) on the worldwide network of stations and spacecraft, we have investigated the proton spectra and the CR anisotropy during the ground level enhancements of CRs on May 17, 2012 (GLE71) and January 6, 2014 (GLE72) occurred in solar cycle 24 by the spectrographic global survey method. We provide the CR rigidity spectra and the relative changes in the intensity of CRs with a rigidity of 2 GV in the solar–ecliptic geocentric coordinate system in specific periods of these events. We show that the proton acceleration during GLE71 and GLE72 occurred up to rigidities R ~ 2.3−2.5 GV, while the differential rigidity spectra of solar CRs are described neither by a power nor by an exponential function of particle rigidity. At the times of the events considered the Earth was in a loop-like structure of the interplanetary magnetic field.