The trigonometric parallax of IRAS 23385+6053 and physical properties of molecular clouds based on the VLBI astrometry

TL;DR

This study uses VLBI astrometry to measure the precise distance and motion of the IRAS 23385+6053 star-forming region, revealing it is closer than previously thought and providing insights into the structure of molecular clouds in the Perseus arm.

Contribution

First VLBI parallax measurement of IRAS 23385+6053, refining its distance and improving understanding of molecular cloud structures in the Perseus arm.

Findings

Distance to IRAS 23385+6053 is approximately 2.17 kpc, half of previous estimates.

Molecular clouds in the Cepheus and Cassiopeia regions extend over about 2 kpc.

Proper motion of the region was accurately determined.

Abstract

We performed very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations to measure the trigonometric parallax of H$_2$O maser sources in the outer massive star-forming region IRAS 23385+6053 using the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) in Japan. The annual parallax is $\pi=0.460 \pm 0.086$~mas, which corresponds to a distance of $2.17^{+0.50}_{-0.34}$ kpc, roughly half the kinematic distance of 4.9 kpc reported in previous studies. The proper motion of IRAS 23385+6053 is obtained to be ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos{\delta}$,$\mu_{\delta}$)=($-3.73\pm0.53$, $-2.0{7}\pm0.73$) mas yr$^{-1}$. Based on VLBI astrometry result, we derived the physical properties of molecular clouds in which H$_2$O masers have been detected, including IRAS 23385+6053 in the Cepheus and Cassiopeia region. We discuss the line-of-sight structures of the giant molecular clouds using the trigonometric distances obtained from the H$_{2}$O maser sources. Our results suggest that molecular clouds in the Perseus arm extend over approximately $2$ kpc at the Cepheus and Cassiopeia region.