THE PARALLAX OF W43: A MASSIVE STAR-FORMING COMPLEX NEAR THE GALACTIC BAR

We report trigonometric parallax measurements of masers in the massive star-forming complex W43 from Very Long Baseline Array observations as part of the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy Survey. Based on measurements of three 12 GHz methanol maser sources (G029.86-00.04, G029.95-00.01, and G031.28+00...

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Published inThe Astrophysical journal Vol. 781; no. 2; pp. 89 - 12
Main Authors Zhang, B., Moscadelli, L., Sato, M., Reid, M. J., Menten, K. M., Zheng, X. W., Brunthaler, A., Dame, T. M., Xu, Y., Immer, K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.02.2014
Subjects
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CARBON MONOXIDE
DISTANCE
GALAXIES
GHZ RANGE
Legacy
MASERS
METHANOL
Methyl alcohol
Parallax
RESOLUTION
Spirals
Star formation
STARS
VELOCITY
WATER
Water masers
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ISSN0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI10.1088/0004-637X/781/2/89

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Summary:We report trigonometric parallax measurements of masers in the massive star-forming complex W43 from Very Long Baseline Array observations as part of the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy Survey. Based on measurements of three 12 GHz methanol maser sources (G029.86-00.04, G029.95-00.01, and G031.28+00.06) and one 22 GHz water maser source (G031.58+00.07) toward W43, we derived a distance of 5.49 super(+0.39) sub(-0.34) kpc to W43. By associating the masers with CO molecular clouds, and associating the clouds kinematically with CO longitude-velocity spiral features, we assign W43 to the Scutum spiral arm, close to the near end of the Galactic bar. The peculiar motion of W43 is about 20 km s super(-1) toward the Galactic Center and is very likely induced by the gravitational attraction of the bar.
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ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/781/2/89