VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions III. HP Tau/G2 and the three-dimensional structure of Taurus

TL;DR

This study uses VLBA observations to measure precise distances to stars in Taurus, revealing the complex three-dimensional structure and kinematics of this nearby star-forming region, and refining stellar age estimates.

Contribution

First VLBA parallax measurements for HP Tau/G2, demonstrating the potential to map the 3D structure and kinematics of Taurus with multiple sources.

Findings

Distance to HP Tau/G2 is 161.2 pc, indicating the eastern Taurus is the far side.

Taurus has a peculiar velocity of about 10.6 km/s mostly parallel to the Galactic plane.

Refined stellar positions on HR diagram suggest models of Palla & Stahler are consistent with coeval ages.

Abstract

Using multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array observations, we have measured the trigonometric parallax of the weak-line T Tauri star HP Tau/G2 in Taurus. The best fit yields a distance of 161.2 $\pm$ 0.9 pc, suggesting that the eastern portion of Taurus (where HP Tau/G2 is located) corresponds to the far side of the complex. Previous VLBA observations have shown that T Tau, to the South of the complex, is at an intermediate distance of about 147 pc, whereas the region around L1495 corresponds to the near side at roughly 130 pc. Our observations of only four sources are still too coarse to enable a reliable determination of the three-dimensional structure of the entire Taurus star-forming complex. They do demonstrate, however, that VLBA observations of multiple sources in a given star-forming region have the potential not only to provide a very accurate estimate of its mean distance, but also to reveal its internal structure. The proper motion measurements obtained simultaneously with the parallax allowed us to study the kinematics of the young stars in Taurus. Combining the four observations available so far, we estimate the peculiar velocity of Taurus to be about 10.6 km s-1 almost completely in a direction parallel to the Galactic plane. Using our improved distance measurement, we have refined the determination of the position on the HR diagram of HP Tau/G2, and of two other members of the HP Tau group (HP Tau itself and HP Tau/G3). Most pre-main sequence evolutionary models predict significantly discrepant ages (by 5 Myr) for those three stars -expected to be coeval. Only in the models of Palla & Stahler (1999) do they fall on a single isochrone (at 3 Myr).