THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. IV. A DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT FROM UGC 3789
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
- Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Auf dem Huegel 69, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
In Papers I and II from the Megamaser Cosmology Project, we reported initial observations of H{sub 2}O masers in an accretion disk of a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy UGC 3789, which gave an angular-diameter distance to the galaxy and an estimate of H{sub 0} with 16% uncertainty. We have since conducted more very long baseline interferometric observations of the spatial-velocity structure of these H{sub 2}O masers, as well as continued monitoring of its spectrum to better measure maser accelerations. These more extensive observations, combined with improved modeling of the masers in the accretion disk of the central supermassive black hole, confirm our previous results, but with significantly improved accuracy. We find H{sub 0} = 68.9 {+-} 7.1 km s{sup -1} Mpc{sup -1}; this estimate of H{sub 0} is independent of other methods and is accurate to {+-}10%, including sources of systematic error. This places UGC 3789 at an angular-diameter distance of 49.6 {+-} 5.1 Mpc, with a central supermassive black hole of (1.16 {+-} 0.12) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 7} M{sub Sun }.
- OSTI ID:
- 22126871
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 767, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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