Distance to Orion KL Measured with VERA

By T. Hirota, T. Bushimata, Y. Choi, M. Honma, H. Imai, K. Iwadate, T. Jike, S. Kameno, O. Kameya, R. Kamohara and 27 more. 2007

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We present the initial results of multiepoch VLBI observations of 22 GHz H2O masers in the Orion KL region with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). With the VERA dual-beam receiving system, we carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, and successfully detected the annual parallax of Orion KL to be 2.29 ˙ 0.10 mas, corresponding to a distance of 437 ˙ 19 pc from the Sun. The distance to Orion KL was determined for the first time with the trigonometric parallax method in these observations. Although this value is consistent with that previously reported, 480 ˙ 80 pc, which was estimated from a statistical parallax method using the proper motions and radial velocities of the H2O maser features, our new results provide a much more accurate value with an uncertainty of only 4%. In addition to the annual parallax, we detected an absolute proper motion of the maser feature, suggesting an outflow motion powered by the radio source I along with the systematic motion of source I itself.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9deda0e2fc5f48d6e920392a86e8ef9bc8ed7fb0

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Citations in the corpus

Parallaxes and proper motions of interstellar masers toward the Cygnus X star-forming complex. I. Membership of the Cygnus X region (2011, background): “…Arm: green dots mark sources from this work; red dots mark sources from the literature (from left to right): Choi et al. (2008), Reid et al. (2009a), Hirota et al. (2007); Menten et al. (2007), Hirota et al. (2008a), Hirota et l. (2011), Moscadelli et al. (2009), Rygl et al. (2010), Hirotae al.”
TRIGONOMETRIC PARALLAXES OF MASSIVE STAR-FORMING REGIONS. VI. GALACTIC STRUCTURE, FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS, AND NONCIRCULAR MOTIONS (2009, methodology): “Eight other sources with H2O or SiO masers have been measured with VERA (Honma et al. 2007; Hirota et al. 2007; Choi et al. 2008; Sato et al. 2008) and with methanol, H2O or continuum emission with the VLBA (Hachisuka et al. 2006; Menten et al. 2007; Moellenbrock, Claussen & Goss 2007; Bartkiewicz…”
Microarcsecond Radio Astrometry (2013, methodology): “Hirota et al. (2007) using VERA measured H2O masers and determined a distance of 437± 19 pc for the KL region.”
Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies (2012, background): “The nearest young cluster that has formed O stars is 415-430 pc away in Orion (Menten et al. 2007; Hirota et al. 2007), and most lie at much larger distances, making study of the entire IMF difficult.”
Astrometry of H2O Masers in Nearby Star-Forming Regions with VERA II SVS 13 in NGC 1333 (2008, methodology): “This effect has also been found in previous results with VERA, in particular for the H2O maser sources associated with nearby molecular clouds (Hirota et al. 2007; Imai et al. 2007).”
THE GOULD’S BELT DISTANCES SURVEY (GOBELINS). II. DISTANCES AND STRUCTURE TOWARD THE ORION MOLECULAR CLOUDS (2016, methodology): “Sandstrom et al. (2007, hereafter S07) also observed GMR A and obtained a somewhat closer distance of - +389 21 24 pc. Hirota et al. (2007) and Kim et al. (2008) observed H2O and SiO masers to obtain a distance of 437±19 pc and 418±6 pc respectively in the Orion BN/KL region.”
The Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy (BeSSeL) Survey: Mapping the Milky Way with VLBI Astrometry† (2011, methodology): “Sandstrom et al. (2007) observed one radio star with the VLBA and obtained a distance of 389+24−21 pc, while Hirota et al. (2007) used VERA to measure the parallax of water masers in the nebula (437 ± 19 pc).”
SiO Maser Observations toward Orion-KL with VERA (2008, methodology): “Hirota et al. (2007) reported a distance of 437 ˙ 19 pc from H2O masers in Orion-KL using VERA.”
ON THE NATURE OF THE LOCAL SPIRAL ARM OF THE MILKY WAY (2013, background): “…results from Menten et al. (2007) and Kim et al. (2008) with equal accuracy, while the proper motions come fromMenten et al. (2007), because Hirota et al. (2007) and Kim et al. (2008) only use one spot to estimate these values. eThe parallax of VY CMa is unweighted average value of the…”
Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium (2014, background): “It lies at a distance of 410pc (Sandstrom et al., 2007; Menten et al., 2007; Hirota et al., 2007; Caballero, 2008).”
THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SURVEY OF THE ORION A AND B MOLECULAR CLOUDS. I. A CENSUS OF DUSTY YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND A STUDY OF THEIR MID-INFRARED VARIABILITY (2012, background): “Very long baseline interferometry parallax measurements of stars and masers in the Orion Nebula give an average distance of 420 pc (Sandstrom et al. 2007; Menten et al. 2007; Hirota et al. 2007).”
The big problems in star formation: The star formation rate, stellar clustering, and the initial mass function (2014, background): “Moreover, the stars are all at nearly the same distance, and for at least some clusters this distance is known quite precisely from interferometrybased parallaxes to radio-flare stars (e.g., Hirota et al. 2007; Sandstrom et al. 2007; Menten et al. 2007; Reid et al. 2009).”
Star and Protoplanetary Disk Properties in Orion's Suburbs (2009, background): “The distance to this complex is estimated to be between 400 and 500 pc (e.g. Anthony-Twarog 1982; Hirota et al. 2007), and the region probably has a “depth” of at least several tens of parcecs.”