Measuring Nearby Star Forming Regions with the VLBA: from the Distance to the Dynamics

TL;DR

This research uses VLBA radio interferometry to precisely measure distances and analyze the structure and dynamics of nearby star-forming regions, significantly improving accuracy over previous methods.

Contribution

It provides highly accurate distance measurements to Taurus and Ophiuchus, and explores their internal structure and stellar dynamics using VLBA observations.

Findings

Distances to Taurus and Ophiuchus determined with a few percent accuracy

Revealed detailed internal structure of the star-forming regions

Analyzed stellar motions and dynamics within the regions

Abstract

This thesis is part of a large ongoing effort to determine the distance and structure of all star-forming regions within several hundred parsecs of the Sun using radio-interferometric observations. The main goals of this thesis were: (1) Find the mean distance to the two best-studied nearby regions of low-mass star-formation (Taurus and Ophiuchus) with accuracies (a few percent or better) one to two orders of magnitude better than the present values, (2) Explore the structure and dynamics of these star-forming regions, and (3) Study the stars themselves.