RADIO AND NEAR-INFRARED IMAGES OF IRAS-21282- A TRANSITIONAL PLANETARY-NEBULA(5050 )

We present 2 and 6 cm VLA images of the young planetary nebula IRAS 21 282 + 5050. The nebular dimensions at 2 and 6 cm are about 4'' x 3'', and the total flux density is almost 7 mJy at each wavelength, suggest ing a spectral index of similar to 0. The emission is not centrally pe aked and appears to arise in a shell or torus. The relatively low flux for the angular size and assumed distance implies an average electron density of 2000-10 000 cm(-3), low for compact planetary nebulae. An image and a polarization map of IRAS 21282 + 5050 at 2.2 mu m are also presented. At 2.2 mu m (K-band), the nebula has a diameter of similar to 6''. The image is centrally peaked, in large part because the cent ral star contributes significantly to the K magnitude of 9.46 (104 mJy ). The 2.2 Irm polarization map does not display a centrosymmetric pat tern characteristic of scattering; within a 7'' aperture, we find an u pper limit of 1.1% for the polarization. These results indicate that t here is not a large component of scattered light in the near-infrared. IRAS 21282+5050 has significantly more emission at 2 mu m than is exp ected for free-free and free-bound emission, however. We suggest that this emission may arise from transiently heated dust.