# Trigonometric distance and proper motions of H2O maser bowshocks in AFGL 5142

## TL;DR

This study uses multi-epoch VLBI observations to measure the distance and 3D motions of water masers in AFGL 5142, revealing bipolar bowshocks and jet activity in a massive star-forming region.

## Contribution

It provides precise parallax and proper motion measurements of masers, linking outflows to protostellar jets and exploring episodic ejection phenomena.

## Key findings

- Measured distance of 2.14 kpc to AFGL 5142.
- Identified bipolar bowshocks expanding from a massive protostar.
- Linked outflows to precessing jet activity.

## Abstract

We present the results of multi-epoch VLBI observations of water masers in the AGFL 5142 massive star forming region. We measure an annual parallax of $\pi=0.467 \pm 0.010$ mas, corresponding to a source distance of $D=2.14^{+0.051}_{-0.049}$ kpc. Proper motion and line of sight velocities reveal the 3D kinematics of masers in this region, most of which associate with millimeter sources from the literature. In particular we find remarkable bipolar bowshocks expanding from the most massive member, AFGL 5142 MM1, which are used to investigate the physical properties of its protostellar jet. We attempt to link the known outflows in this region to possible progenitors by considering a precessing jet scenario and we discuss the episodic nature of ejections in AFGL 5142.