1999ApJ...510..687S

The morphology of planetary nebulae (PNs) provides an essential tool for understanding their origin and evolution, since it reflects both the dynamics of the gas ejected at the tip of the asymptotic giant branch phase and the central-star energetics. Here we study the morphology of 27 Magellanic Cloud planetary nebulae (MCPNs) and present an analysis of their physical characteristics across morphological classes. Similar studies have been successfully carried out for Galactic PNs but were compromised by the uncertainty of individual PN distances. We present our own Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint Object Camera (FOC) images of 15 MCPNs acquired through a narrowband [O III] λ5007 filter. We use the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution technique on these pre-COSTAR images to achieve post-COSTAR quality. Three PNs imaged before and after COSTAR confirm the high reliability of our deconvolution procedure. We derive morphological classes, dimensions, and surface photometry for all of these PNs. We have combined this sample with HST/PC1 images of 15 MCPNs, three of which are in common with the FOC set acquired by Dopita et al., to obtain the largest MCPNs sample ever examined from the morphological viewpoint. By using the entire database, supplemented with published data from the literature, we have analyzed the properties of the MCPNs and compared them to a typical, complete Galactic sample. Morphology of the MCPNs is then correlated with PN density, chemistry, and evolution.