Distances to Galactic methanol masers

TL;DR

This paper reports the first EVN parallax measurements of 6.7 GHz methanol masers in star-forming regions, demonstrating the technique's potential for precise Galactic distance measurements with high accuracy.

Contribution

It provides the first EVN parallax measurements of 6.7 GHz methanol masers, establishing their utility for accurate astrometry in Galactic star-forming regions.

Findings

Achieved parallax accuracies up to 51 microarcseconds.

Demonstrated the stability and suitability of 6.7 GHz methanol masers for astrometric measurements.

Preliminary results for five star-forming regions show promising potential for future precise distance determinations.

Abstract

We present the first EVN parallax measurements of 6.7 GHz methanol masers in star forming regions of the Galaxy. The 6.7 GHz methanol maser transition is a very valuable astrometric tool, for its large stability and confined velocity spread, which makes it ideal to measure proper motions and parallaxes. Eight well-studied massive star forming regions have been observed during five EVN sessions of 24 hours duration each and we present here preliminary results for five of them. We achieve accuracies of up to 51 $\mu$as, which still have the potential to be proved by more ideal observational circumstances.