Mega-masers, Dark Energy and the Hubble Constant

Multimedia · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:987369

Lo, Fred K.Y.

Powerful water maser emission (water mega-masers) can be found in accretion disks in the nuclei of some galaxies. Besides providing a measure of the mass at the nucleus, such mega-masers can be used to determine the distance to the host galaxy, based on a kinematic model. We will explain the importance of determining the Hubble Constant to high accuracy for constraining the equation of state of Dark Energy and describe the Mega-maser Cosmology Project that has the goal of determining the Hubble Constant to better than 3%. Time permitting, we will also present the scientific capabilities of the current and future NRAO facilities: ALMA, EVLA, VLBA and GBT, for addressing key astrophysical problems

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 987369
• Resource Relation: Conference: SLAC Colloquium Series, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California, presented on October 15, 2007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
MEGA-MASERS
HUBBLE CONSTANT
DARK ENERGY
MEGA-MASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT