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Title: DISTANCE AND PROPER MOTION MEASUREMENT OF THE RED SUPERGIANT, S PERSEI, WITH VLBI H{sub 2}O MASER ASTROMETRY

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuou, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210 (Japan)
  2. Nobeyama Radio Observatory, Nobeyama, Minamimaki, Minamisaku 384-1305 (Japan)
  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-21-35 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065 (Japan)
  4. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030 (China)
  5. Division of Radio Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
  6. Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)

We have conducted Very Long Baseline Array phase-referencing monitoring of H{sub 2}O masers around the red supergiant, S Persei, for six years. We have fitted maser motions to a simple expanding-shell model with a common annual parallax and stellar proper motion, and obtained the annual parallax as 0.413 {+-} 0.017 mas and the stellar proper motion as (-0.49 {+-} 0.23 mas yr{sup -1}, -1.19 {+-} 0.20 mas yr{sup -1}) in right ascension and declination, respectively. The obtained annual parallax corresponds to the trigonometric distance of 2.42{sup +0.11}{sub -0.09} kpc. Assuming a Galactocentric distance of the Sun of 8.5 kpc, the circular rotational velocity of the local standard of rest at a distance of the Sun of 220 km s{sup -1}, and a flat Galactic rotation curve, S Persei is suggested to have a non-circular motion deviating from the Galactic circular rotation for 15 km s{sup -1}, which is mainly dominated by the anti-rotation direction component of 12.9 {+-} 2.9 km s{sup -1}. This red supergiant is thought to belong to the OB association, Per OB1, so that this non-circular motion is representative of a motion of the OB association in the Milky Way. This non-circular motion is somewhat larger than that explained by the standard density-wave theory for a spiral galaxy and is attributed to either a cluster shuffling of the OB association, or to non-linear interactions between non-stationary spiral arms and multi-phase interstellar media. The latter comes from a new view of a spiral arm formation in the Milky Way suggested by recent large N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics numerical simulations.

OSTI ID:
21464873
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 721, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/721/1/267; ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English