scholarly journals Mass distribution of the Galaxy with VERA

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S287) ◽  
pp. 421-422
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Sakai ◽  
Mareki Honma ◽  
Hiroyuki Nakanishi ◽  
Hirofumi Sakanoue ◽  
Tomoharu Kurayama ◽  
...  

AbstractWe aim to reveal the mass distribution of the Galaxy based on a precise rotation curve constructed using VERA observations. We have been observing Galactic H2O masers with VERA. We here report one of the results of VERA for IRAS 05168+3634. The parallax is 0.532 ± 0.053 mas which corresponds to a distance of 1.88+0.21−0.17 kpc, and the proper motions are (μαcosδ, μδ) = (0.23 ± 1.07, −3.14 ± 0.28) mas yr−1. The distance is significantly smaller than the previous distance estimate of 6 kpc based on a kinematic distance. This drastic change places the source in the Perseus arm rather than in the Outer arm. Combination of the distance and the proper motions with the systemic velocity provides a rotation velocity of 227+9−11 km s−1 at the source assuming Θ0 = 240 km s−1. The result is marginally slower than the rotation velocity at LSR with ~ 1−σ significance, but consistent with previous VLBI results for six sources in the Perseus arm. We also show the averaged disk peculiar motion over the seven sources in the Perseus arm as (Umean, Vmean) = (11 ± 3, −17 ± 3) km s−1. It suggests that the seven sources in the Perseus arm are systematically moving toward the Galactic center, and lag behind the Galactic rotation with more than 3-σ significance.

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S289) ◽  
pp. 95-98
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Sakai ◽  
Mareki Honma ◽  
Hiroyuki Nakanishi ◽  
Hirofumi Sakanoue ◽  
Tomoharu Kurayama ◽  
...  

AbstractWe present a measurement of the trigonometric parallax of IRAS 05168+3634 with VERA. The parallax is 0.532 ± 0.053 milli-arcsec, corresponding to a distance of 1.88+0.21−0.17 kpc. This is significantly closer than the previous distance estimate of 6 kpc based on a kinematic distance measurement. This drastic change in the source distance implies the need for revised values of not only the physical parameters of IRAS 05168+3634, but it also impies a different location in the Galaxy, placing it in the Perseus arm rather than the Outer arm. We also measured the proper motion of the source. A combination of the distance and proper motion with the systemic velocity yields a rotation velocity Θ = 227+9−11 km s−1 at the source position, assuming Θ0 = 240 km s−1. Our result, combined with previous VLBI results for six sources in the Perseus arm, indicates that the sources rotate systematically more slowly than the Galactic rotation velocity at the local standard of rest. In fact, we derive peculiar motions in the disk averaged over the seven sources in the Perseus arm of (Umean, Vmean) = (11 ± 3, −17 ± 3) km s−1, which indicates that these seven sources are moving systematically toward the Galactic Center and lag behind the overall Galactic rotation.


1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 175-176
Author(s):  
K.C. Freeman

From their rotation curves, most spiral galaxies appear to have massive dark coronas. The inferred masses of these dark coronas are typically 5 to 10 times the mass of the underlying stellar component. I will review the evidence that our Galaxy also has a dark corona. Our position in the galactic disk makes it difficult to measure the galactic rotation curve beyond about 20 kpc from the galactic center. However it does allow several other indicators of the total galactic mass out to very large distances. It seems clear that the Galaxy does indeed have a massive dark corona. The data indicate that the enclosed mass within radius R increases like M(R) ≈ R(kpc) × 1010M⊙, out to a radius of more than 100 kpc. The total galactic mass is at least 12 × 1011M⊙.


1996 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 703-706
Author(s):  
D. M. Peterson ◽  
D. Slowik

The Galactic rotation law provides critical information for estimating the distribution of mass in the Galaxy, for tying the distance of the Sun from the Galactic center to local distance scales, and, if determined over large enough distances, for estimating the total mass of the system and the amount of nonluminous matter present. Interior to the Sun velocities are well defined by observations of the ISM, particularly HI. These techniques are not available for points exterior to the Sun and we must rely on observations of velocities of objects whose distances can be estimated. Notable among these are the Cepheids (Pont et al 1994) and the combination of CO velocities and OB cluster distances (Brand & Blitz 1993) where the two are found to coexist. Adding a new class of objects, particularly bright, relatively common objects to this effort is of importance.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S242) ◽  
pp. 378-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiharu Asaki ◽  
Shuji Deguchi ◽  
Hirishi Imai ◽  
Kazuya Hachisuka ◽  
Makoto Miyoshi ◽  
...  

AbstractVLBI phase-referencing monitoring of water vapor masers around the red supergiant, S Per, was conducted over four years. We successfully obtained proper motions and an annual parallax of the masers and determined the distance to S Per of 2.51±0.09 kpc. The proper motion of the star itself was inferred from the maser proper motions, and it was −0.38 and −1.54 mas/yr for right ascension and declination, respectively. Assuming the distance from the sun to the Galactic center, R0, of 8.5 kpc and the rotation velocity around the sun, Θ0, of 220 km/s, the Galactic rotation velocity around S Per is 200 km/s.


1996 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 645-650
Author(s):  
K.C. Freeman

The rotation curves of spiral galaxies indicate that most of them have massive dark coronas, and it seems likely that our Galaxy also has a dark corona. Our position in the galactic disk makes it difficult to measure the galactic rotation curve beyond about 20 kpc from the galactic center, but it does allow us to use several other indicators of the total galactic mass out to very large distances. I will review some of these indicators. The conclusion is that the Galaxy does indeed have a massive dark corona: the data are consistent with the enclosed mass within radius R increasing like M(R) ≈ R(kpc) × 1010M⊙, out to a radius of more than 100 kpc, and a total galactic mass of at least 12 × 1011M⊙.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S242) ◽  
pp. 361-365
Author(s):  
Mareki Honma ◽  
Takeshi Bushimata ◽  
Yoon Kyung Choi ◽  
Tomoya Hirota ◽  
Hiroshi Imai ◽  
...  

AbstractWe present results of astrometric observations of S269 H2O maser performed with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). We have monitored the positions of S269 H2O masers for 1 year and successfully detected its parallax to be 189±8 micro-arcsecond. This corresponds to a source distance of 5.28+0.24−0.22kpc, and is the smallest parallax (and thus the largest distance) that has ever been measured by means of annual parallax. Proper motions of S269 H2O maser were also measured and used to determine the Galactic rotation velocity at the position of S269. Our measurements show that the Galactic rotation velocity at S269 is the same to that at the Sun within 3%, indicating that the Galactic rotation curve is flat out to R~13 kpc.


1993 ◽  
Vol 153 ◽  
pp. 353-354
Author(s):  
I.V. Petrovskaya ◽  
S. Ninković

It is not always clear what the bulge of the Galaxy is: a region close to the centre, a subsystem formed by a distinct population, or a mixture of populations but characterised by its own mass distribution. We consider the bulge of the Milky Way as a subsystem and thus contributing to the galactic gravitation field. We want to estimate the contribution of the galactic bulge to the rotation curve.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S336) ◽  
pp. 148-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Reid

AbstractMaser astrometry is now providing parallaxes with accuracies of ±10 micro-arcseconds, which corresponds to 10% accuracy at a distance of 10 kpc! The VLBA BeSSeL Survey and the Japanese VERA project have measured ≈200 parallaxes for masers associated with young, high-mass stars. Since these stars are found in spiral arms, we now are directly mapping the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Combining parallaxes, proper motions, and Doppler velocities, we have complete 6-dimensional phase-space information. Modeling these data yields the distance to the Galactic Center, the rotation speed of the Galaxy at the Sun, and the nature of the rotation curve.


1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 501-501
Author(s):  
M. T. McGinn ◽  
K. Sellgren ◽  
E. E. Becklin ◽  
D. N. B. Hall

We present the results of a project to map the profile of the 2.3 μm CO V = 2–0 band-head in the integrated starlight in the central 10 pc of the Galaxy. This is the first detailed determination of the kinematics of the faint stars that are the major constituent of the mass of the stellar cluster. The stars exhibit systematic rotation in the same sense as Galactic rotation, with VLSR increasing with Galactocentric radius. The stellar velocity dispersion generally dominates the rotation and shows clear evidence for a radial gradient, in the sense of σ decreasing with Galactocentric radius. The data are consistent with the dynamical center of the Galaxy being located at IRS 16 (to an accuracy of ± 10″). The mass distribution has been derived via the theory of stellar hydrodynamics and is shown in Fig. 1. For an assumed core radius of 10″ (~0.4 pc), the best fitting model is a combination of a central mass of 2.5 × 106 M⊙ and a stellar cluster with a density dependence of r-2.1 (Fig. 1). If the core radius is small (~1″) then the mass distribution could be just due to a stellar cluster; a central condensed mass is not required to model the data in that case.


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