arXiv · 0806.4635
Distance to NGC 281 in a Galactic Fragmenting Superbubble: Parallax Measurements with VERA
Abstract
We have used the Japanese VLBI array VERA to perform high-precision astrometry of an H2O maser source in the Galactic star-forming region NGC 281 West, which has been considered to be part of a 300-pc superbubble. We successfully detected a trigonometric parallax of 0.355+/-0.030 mas, corresponding to a source distance of 2.82+/-0.24 kpc. Our direct distance determination of NGC 281 has resolved the large distance discrepancy between previous photometric and kinematic studies; likely NGC 281 is in the far side of the Perseus spiral arm. The source distance as well as the absolute proper motions were used to demonstrate the 3D structure and expansion of the NGC 281 superbubble, ~650 pc in size parallel to the Galactic disk and with a shape slightly elongated along the disk or spherical, but not vertically elongated, indicating the superbubble expansion may be confined to the disk. We estimate the expansion velocity of the superbubble as ~20 km/s both perpendicular to and parallel to the Galactic disk with a consistent timescale of ~20 Myr.
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Mayumi Sato, Tomoya Hirota, Mareki Honma, Hideyuki Kobayashi, Tetsuo Sasao, Takeshi Bushimata, Yoon Kyung Choi, Hiroshi Imai, Kenzaburo Iwadate, Takaaki Jike, Seiji Kameno, Osamu Kameya, Ryuichi Kamohara, Yukitoshi Kan-ya, Noriyuki Kawaguchi, Mi Kyoung Kim, Seisuke Kuji, Tomoharu Kurayama, Seiji Manabe, Makoto Matsui, Naoko Matsumoto, Takeshi Miyaji, Takumi Nagayama, Akiharu Nakagawa, Kayoko Nakamura, Chung Sik Oh, Toshihiro Omodaka, Tomoaki Oyama, Satoshi Sakai, Katsuhisa Sato, Katsunori M. Shibata, Yoshiaki Tamura, Kazuyoshi Yamashita. 2008-06-27. Distance to NGC 281 in a Galactic Fragmenting Superbubble: Parallax Measurements with VERA. https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj%2F60.5.975
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