Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:06:57.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cepheids and other variable stars and the distance to the Galactic Centre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2013

Noriyuki Matsunaga
Noriyuki Matsunaga*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We review and discuss results of our survey of variable stars towards the Galactic Centre and their distances. In our near-infrared monitoring survey using IRSF/SIRIUS, we detected a number of Miras and Cepheids (both classical and type II) within 20 arcmin of the Galactic Centre. These distance indicators yield a distance to the Galactic Centre of between 7.5 and 8.5 kpc. A new calibration of the red clump also leads to a distance of ~ 8 kpc. For these indicators, which are luminosity-based, a large uncertainty resides in the correction for the foreground extinction, which depends on the reddening law. Nevertheless, our estimates are consistent with previous estimates based the kinematics of stars near the Galactic Centre, and this supports the reddening law we use.

Keywords

Cepheidsstars: variables: otherGalaxy: centerdistance scale
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S289: Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances , August 2012 , pp. 109 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

References

Bonatto, C., Bica, E., & Girardi, L. 2004, A&A, 415, 571Google Scholar
Bono, G., Marconi, M., Cassisi, S., Caputo, F., Gieren, W., & Pietrzyński, G. 2005, ApJ, 621, 966Google Scholar
Bono, G., Caputo, F., Marconi, M., & Musella, I. 2010, ApJ, 715, 277Google Scholar
Bono, G., Matsunaga, N., Inno, L., Lagioia, L., & Genovali, K. 2012, in: Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics (Torres, D. F., & Reimer, O., eds.), in pressGoogle Scholar
Feast, M. W., Glass, I. S., Whitelock, P. A., & Catchpole, R. M. 1989, MNRAS, 241, 375Google Scholar
Freedman, W. L. & Madore, B. F. 2011, ApJ, 734, 46Google Scholar
Freedman, W. L., et al. 2001, ApJ, 553, 47Google Scholar
Gillessen, S., Eisenhauer, F., Fritz, T. K., Bartko, H., Dodds-Eden, K., Pfuhl, O., Ott, T., & Genzel, R. 2009, ApJ, 707, L114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, I. S. & Lloyd Evans, T. 1981, Nature, 291, 303Google Scholar
Glass, I. S., Matsumoto, S., Carter, B. S., & Sekiguchi, K. 2001, MNRAS, 321, 77Google Scholar
Glass, I. S. & Nagata, T. 2000, Mon. Not. Astron. Soc. S. Africa, 59, 110Google Scholar
Hill, V., Lecureur, A., Gómez, A., et al. 2011, A&A, 534, 80Google Scholar
Ita, Y. & Matsunaga, N. 2011, MNRAS, 412, 2345Google Scholar
Launhardt, R., Zylka, R., & Mezger, P. G. 2002, A&A, 384, 112Google Scholar
Laney, C. D., Joner, M. D., & Pietrzyński, G. 2012, MNRAS, 419, 1634Google Scholar
Matsunaga, N., Fukushi, H., Nakada, Y., et al. 2006, MNRAS, 370, 1979CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsunaga, N., Kawadu, T., Nishiyama, S., et al. 2009, MNRAS, 399, 1709Google Scholar
Matsunaga, N., Feast, M. W., & Soszyński, I. 2011a, MNRAS, 413, 223Google Scholar
Matsunaga, N., Kawadu, T., Nishiyama, S., et al. 2011b, Nature, 477, 188Google Scholar
Matsunaga, N. 2012, J. Phys. Conf. Ser., 372, 12026Google Scholar
Matsunaga, N., Feast, M. W., Kawadu, T., et al. 2013, MNRAS, in press (arXiv:1211.0151)Google Scholar
Mauerhan, J. C., Morris, M. R., Cotera, A., Dong, H., Wang, Q. D., Stolovy, S. R., Lang, C., & Glass, I. S. 2010, ApJ, 713, L33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagashima, C., Nagayama, T., Nakajima, Y., et al. 1999, in: Proc. Star Formation (Nakamoto, T., ed.), p. 397Google Scholar
Nagayama, T., Nagashima, C., Nakajima, Y., et al. 2003, Proc. SPIE, 4841, 459Google Scholar
Nishiyama, S., Nagata, T., Kusakabe, N., et al. 2006a, ApJ, 638, 839CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishiyama, S., Nagata, T., Sato, S., et al. 2006b, ApJ, 647, 1093CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rieke, G. H. & Lebofsky, M. J. 1985, ApJ, 288, 618Google Scholar
Riess, A. G., Macri, L., Li, W., et al. 2009, ApJS, 183, 109Google Scholar
Sandage, A. & Tammann, G. A. 2006, ARA&A, 44, 93Google Scholar
Storm, J., Gieren, W., Fouqué, P., Barnes, T. G., Soszyński, I., Pietrzyński, G., Nardetto, N., & Queloz, D. 2011, A&A, 534, 95Google Scholar
Trippe, S., Gillessen, S., Gerhard, O. E., et al. 2008, A&A, 492, 419Google Scholar
Whitelock, P. A., Feast, M. W., & van Leeuwen, F. 2008, MNRAS, 386, 313Google Scholar
Zasowski, G., Majewski, S. R., Indebetouw, R., et al. 2009, ApJ, 707, 510Google Scholar