Inward Motions of the Compact SiO Masers Around VX Sagittarii

We report Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of 43 GHz v=1, J=1-0 SiO masers in the circumstellar envelope of the M-type semi-regular variable star VX Sgr at 3 epochs during 1999 April-May. These high-resolution VLBA images reveal a persistent ringlike distribution of SiO masers with a projected radius of ~3 stellar radii. The typical angular size of 0.5 mas for individual maser feature was estimated from two-point correlation function analysis for maser spots. We found that the apparent size scale of maser features was distinctly smaller than that observed in the previous observations by comparing their fractions of total power imaged. This change in the size scale of maser emission may be related to stellar activity that caused a large SiO flare during our observations. Our observations confirmed the asymmetric distribution of maser emission, but the overall morphology has changed significantly with the majority of masers clustering to the north-east of the star compared to that lying to the south-west direction in 1992. By identifying 42 matched maser features appearing in all the three epochs, we determined the contraction of an SiO maser shell toward VX Sgr at a proper motion of -0.507 mas/yr, corresponding to a velocity of about 4 km/s at a distance of 1.7 kpc to VX Sgr. Such a velocity is on the order of the sound speed, and can be easily explained by the gravitational infall of material from the circumstellar dust shell.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Astrometry of Water Maser Sources in Nearby Molecular Clouds with VERA - II. SVS 13 in NGC 1333

We report on the results of multi-epoch VLBI observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of the 22 GHz H2O masers associated with the young stellar object SVS 13 in the NGC 1333 region. We have carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry and measured an annual parallax of the maser features in SVS 13 of 4.25+/-0.32 mas, corresponding to the distance of 235+/-18 pc from the Sun. Our result is consistent with a photometric distance of 220 pc previously reported. Even though the maser features were detectable only for 6 months, the present results provide the distance to NGC 1333 with much higher accuracy than photometric methods. The absolute positions and proper motions have been derived, revealing that the H2O masers with the LSR (local standard of rest) velocities of 7-8 km s-1 are most likely associated with VLA4A, which is a radio counterpart of SVS 13. The origin of the observed proper motions of the maser features are currently difficult to attribute to either the jet or the rotating circumstellar disk associated with VLA4A, which should be investigated through future high-resolution astrometric observations of VLA4A and other radio sources in NGC 1333.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. PASJ, in press (2008, Vol. 60, No. 1

Astrometry of Galactic Star Forming Region Sharpless 269 with VERA : Parallax Measurements and Constraint on Outer Rotation Curve

We have performed high-precision astrometry of H2O maser sources in Galactic star forming region Sharpless 269 (S269) with VERA. We have successfully detected a trigonometric parallax of 189+/-8 micro-arcsec, corresponding to the source distance of 5.28 +0.24/-0.22 kpc. This is the smallest parallax ever measured, and the first one detected beyond 5 kpc. The source distance as well as proper motions are used to constrain the outer rotation curve of the Galaxy, demonstrating that the difference of rotation velocities at the Sun and at S269 (which is 13.1 kpc away from the Galaxy's center) is less than 3%. This gives the strongest constraint on the flatness of the outer rotation curve and provides a direct confirmation on the existence of large amount of dark matter in the Galaxy's outer disk.Comment: 7 pages and 4 figures, Accepted by PASJ (Vol. 59, No. 5, October 25, 2007 issue

Distance to Orion KL Measured with VERA

We present the initial results of multi-epoch VLBI observations of the 22 GHz H2O masers in the Orion KL region with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). With the VERA dual-beam receiving system, we have carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry and successfully detected an annual parallax of Orion KL to be 2.29+/-0.10 mas, corresponding to the distance of 437+/-19 pc from the Sun. The distance to Orion KL is determined for the first time with the annual parallax method in these observations. Although this value is consistent with that of the previously reported, 480+/-80 pc, which is estimated from the statistical parallax method using proper motions and radial velocities of the H2O maser features, our new results provide the much more accurate value with an uncertainty of only 4%. In addition to the annual parallax, we have detected an absolute proper motion of the maser feature, suggesting an outflow motion powered by the radio source I along with the systematic motion of source I itself.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. PASJ, in press (Vol. 59, No. 5, October 25, 2007 issue

Absolute Proper Motions of H2O Masers Away from the Galactic Plane Measured with VERA in the "Superbubble" Region NGC 281

We report on absolute proper-motion measurements of an H2O maser source in the NGC 281 West molecular cloud, which is located ~320 pc above the Galactic plane and is associated with an HI loop extending from the Galactic plane. We have conducted multi-epoch phase-referencing observations of the maser source with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) over a monitoring period of 6 months since May 2006. We find that the H2O maser features in NGC 281 West are systematically moving toward the southwest and further away from the Galactic plane with a vertical velocity of ~20-30 km/s at its estimated distance of 2.2-3.5 kpc. Our new results provide the most direct evidence that the gas in the NGC 281 region on the HI loop was blown out from the Galactic plane, most likely in a superbubble driven by multiple or sequential supernova explosions in the Galactic plane.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, PASJ in press (Vol. 59, No. 4; August 25, 2007 issue

VLBI Astrometry of AGB Variables with VERA -- A Semiregular Variable S Crateris --

We present a distance measurement for the semiregular variable S Crateris (S Crt) based on its annual parallax. With the unique dual beam system of the VLBI Exploration for Radio Astrometry (VERA) telescopes, we measured the absolute proper motion of a water maser spot associated with S Crt, referred to the quasar J1147-0724 located at an angular separation of 1.23$^{\circ}$. In observations spanning nearly two years, we have detected the maser spot at the LSR velocity of 34.7 km s$^{-1}$, for which we measured the annual parallax of 2.33$\pm$0.13 mas corresponding to a distance of 430$^{+25}_{-23}$ pc. This measurement has an accuracy one order of magnitude better than the parallax measurements of HIPPARCOS. The angular distribution and three-dimensional velocity field of maser spots indicate a bipolar outflow with the flow axis along northeast-southwest direction. Using the distance and photospheric temperature, we estimate the stellar radius of S Crt and compare it with those of Mira variables.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Vol.60, No.5, October 25, VERA special issue

Distance to VY Canis Majoris with VERA

We report astrometric observations of H2O masers around the red supergiant VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) carried out with VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA). Based on astrometric monitoring for 13 months, we successfully measured a trigonometric parallax of 0.88 +/- 0.08 mas, corresponding to a distance of 1.14 +0.11/-0.09 kpc. This is the most accurate distance to VY CMa and the first one based on an annual parallax measurement. The luminosity of VY CMa has been overestimated due to a previously accepted distance. With our result, we re-estimate the luminosity of VY CMa to be (3 +/- 0.5) x 10^5 L_sun using the bolometric flux integrated over optical and IR wavelengths. This improved luminosity value makes location of VY CMa on the Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram much closer to the theoretically allowable zone (i.e. the left side of the Hayashi track) than previous ones, though uncertainty in the effective temperature of the stellar surface still does not permit us to make a final conclusion.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ, VERA special issu

Astrometry of H2_{2}O Masers in Nearby Star-Forming Regions with VERA. III. IRAS 22198+6336 in L1204G

We present results of multi-epoch VLBI observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of the 22 GHz H$_{2}$O masers associated with a young stellar object (YSO) IRAS 22198+6336 in a dark cloud L1204G. Based on the phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, we derive an annual parallax of IRAS 22198+6336 to be 1.309$\pm$0.047 mas, corresponding to the distance of 764$\pm$27 pc from the Sun. Although the most principal error source of our astrometry is attributed to the internal structure of the maser spots, we successfully reduce the errors in the derived annual parallax by employing the position measurements for all of the 26 detected maser spots. Based on this result, we reanalyze the spectral energy distribution (SED) of IRAS 22198+6336 and find that the bolometric luminosity and total mass of IRAS 22198+6336 are 450$L_{\odot}$ and 7$M_{\odot}$, respectively. These values are consistent with an intermediate-mass YSO deeply embedded in the dense dust core, which has been proposed to be an intermediate-mass counterpart of a low-mass Class 0 source. In addition, we obtain absolute proper motions of the H$_{2}$O masers for the most blue-shifted components. We propose that the collimated jets aligned along the east-west direction are the most plausible explanation for the origin of the detected maser features.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Vol.60, No.5, October 25, VERA special issue