A VLBI resolution of the Pleiades distance controversy
Abstract
Because of its proximity and its youth, the Pleiades open cluster of stars has been extensively studied and serves as a cornerstone for our understanding of the physical properties of young stars. This role is called into question by the "Pleiades distance controversy," wherein the cluster distance of 120.2 ± 1.5 parsecs (pc) as measured by the optical space astrometry mission Hipparcos is significantly different from the distance of 133.5 ± 1.2 pc derived with other techniques. We present an absolute trigonometric parallax distance measurement to the Pleiades cluster that uses very long baseline radio interferometry (VLBI). This distance of 136.2 ± 1.2 pc is the most accurate and precise yet presented for the cluster and is incompatible with the Hipparcos distance determination. Our results cement existing astrophysical models for Pleiades-age stars.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received for publication 15 May 2014. Accepted for publication 23 July 2014. We thank the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank Telescope, Arecibo Observatory, and Effelsberg Telescope staff who coordinated, conducted, and correlated observations for this project. All data presented in this paper are maintained in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory archive. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator, developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Programme and operated under license. C.M. acknowledges financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation through awards AST-1313428 and AST-1003318, from a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory minigrant to the University of California–Los Angeles, and from the Spitzer Science Center Visiting Graduate Student Program. G.C.B. acknowledges support from the Academica Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - Melis_SM.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 49840
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140918-153305809
- AST-1313428
- NSF
- AST-1003318
- NSF
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Spitzer Science Center Visiting Graduate Student Program
- Academica Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Created
-
2014-09-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)