information:classification, linguistic:paraphrasing, structural:scholar_edition
Planetary nebula luminosity function

Like the GCLF method, a similar numerical analysis can be used for planetary nebulae within far off galaxies. The planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) was first proposed in the late 1970s by Holland Cole and David Jenner. They suggested that all planetary nebulae might all have similar maximum intrinsic brightness, now calculated to be M = −4.53. This would therefore make them potential standard candles for determining extragalactic distances.

Astronomer George Howard Jacoby and his colleagues later proposed that the PNLF function equaled:

N (M) ∝ e 0.307 M (1 − e 3 (M ∗ − M)). {\displaystyle \ N(M)\propto e^{0.307M}(1-e^{3(M^{*}-M)})\,.} Where N(M) is number of planetary nebula, having absolute magnitude M. M* is equal to the nebula with the brightest magnitude.