A revised distance to IRAS 16293$-$2422 from VLBA astrometry of associated water masers

TL;DR

This study refines the distance to the young stellar system IRAS 16293-2422 using VLBA water maser astrometry, providing a more accurate measurement that aligns with other young stars in the L1689 cloud.

Contribution

The paper presents a new, precise trigonometric parallax measurement of IRAS 16293-2422 using VLBA water maser observations, improving distance estimates for this system.

Findings

Distance to IRAS 16293-2422 is 141 pc with uncertainties.

Water maser kinematics relate to outflows and ejections.

New distance aligns with other young stars in the L1689 cloud.

Abstract

IRAS 16293-2422 is a very well studied young stellar system seen in projection towards the L1689N cloud in the Ophiuchus complex. However, its distance is still uncertain with a range of values from 120 pc to 180 pc. Our goal is to measure the trigonometric parallax of this young star by means of H$_2$O maser emission. We use archival data from 15 epochs of VLBA observations of the 22.2 GHz water maser line. By modeling the displacement on the sky of the H$_2$O maser spots, we derived a trigonometric parallax of $7.1\pm1.3$ mas, corresponding to a distance of $141_{-21}^{+30}$ pc. This new distance is in good agreement with recent values obtained for other magnetically active young stars in the L1689 cloud. We relate the kinematics of these masers with the outflows and the recent ejections powered by source A in the system.