PAHs Near and Far: Ground and Airborne 3-5 micron observations of PAHs in Planetary Nebulae and Star Forming Regions in the Era of JWST

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) exhibit bright, broad emission features throughout the infrared with main features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 and 12.7 μm. These bands arise from the UV excitation of PAHs and relaxation through the vibration, bending and/or stretching of the C–H and C–C bonds. This emission has been observed in multiple astronomical phenomena, including planetary nebulae, where they are believed to be formed, and star-forming regions, which has led to their use as a marker for estimating star formation rates in distant galaxies. Many of these bands are accessible from ground-based observatories, including 3.3 micron PAH feature and its associated aliphatic features at 3.4-3.6 microns. We used ground-based (Lick/FLITECAM and Keck/NIRSPEC) observations of the ~3-5 micron spectra of young planetary nebulae and nearby star-forming regions, to investigate the spatial distribution and spectral variation of PAH emission, and stratospheric (SOFIA/FLITECAM) observations to constrain the theoretical contribution of the 4.4-4.8 micron deuterated-PAH features and the weak 5.25 PAH emission feature. Studying young PNs and nearby star-forming regions with ground-based telescopes gives a unique opportunity for fully understanding PAH emission, processing and variation that can be used in interpreting the extra-galactic PAH spectra JWST will study.