Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:25:00.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Distance to the Pleiades Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2007

David Valls-Gabaud*
Affiliation:
GEPI, CNRS UMR 8111, Observatoire de Paris, France 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.

The parallax of the Pleiades has been mired in controversy ever since the very first astrometric measures in the late 1880s. Over a century later, the measures from the HIPPARCOS catalogue gave results which were inconsistent with the distance inferred from the fitting of the colour-magnitude diagram. We briefly review here the debate and focus on the various attempts made at solving the problem, and especially those using binary stars. The only double-lined eclipsing binary found so far in the Pleiades, HD 23642, provides not only the final answer to the problem but also, through detailed state-of-the-art analyses, the fundamental calibration for binaries in more distant clusters and hence in the Local Group. We discuss some of the various sources of systematic uncertainties that limit, so far, the accuracy of the measured stellar parameters to about 1% and the progress that is required to break this barrier.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Alden, H.L. 1923, AJ 35, 61 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, D., et al. 2006, ApJ in pressGoogle Scholar
Arenou, F., et al. 1995, A&A 304, 52 Google Scholar
Belikov, A.N. et al. 1998, A&A 332, 575 Google Scholar
Binnendijk, L. 1946, Ann. Sterrew. Leiden 19, 2 Google Scholar
Boesgaard, A.M., Friel, E.D. 1998, A&A 332, 575 Google Scholar
Binnendijk, L. 1946, Ann. Sterrew. Leiden 19, 2 Google Scholar
Boesgaard, A.M., Friel, E.D. 1990, ApJ 351, 467 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böhm-Vitense, E. 2006, PASP 118, 419 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkhart, C., Coupry, M.F. 2000, A&A 354, 216 Google Scholar
Castellani, V. et al. 2002, MNRAS 334, 193 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cayrel, R. et al. 1988, in IAU Symp 132, 449 Google Scholar
Claret, A., Hauschildt, P.H. 2003, A&A 412, 241 Google Scholar
Clerke, A.M. 1893, Observatory 16, 198 Google Scholar
Fox Machado, L. et al. 2006, A&A 446, 611 Google Scholar
Galileo, G. 1610, Sidereus Nuncius (Florence) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatewood, G. et al. 2000, ApJ 533, 938 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giannuzzi, M.A. 1995, A&A 293, 360 Google Scholar
Grenon, M. 2002, Highlights in Astronomy 12, 680 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, R.F. 1995, JRASC 89, 53 Google Scholar
Hui-Bon-Hoa, A. 2000, A&AS 144, 203 Google Scholar
King, J.R. et al. 2000, ApJ 533, 944 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lastennet, E. et al. 2003, A&A 409, 611 Google Scholar
Lastennet, E. & Valls-Gabaud, 2002, A&A 396, 551 Google Scholar
Lindegren, L. 1995, A&A 304, 61 Google Scholar
Lynden-Bell, D. 1998, in IAU Symp. 192, 15 Google Scholar
Makarov, V.V. 2002, AJ 124, 3299 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mermilliod, J.C. et al. 1997, in Hipparcos Venice'97, ESA SP-402, 643Google Scholar
Miles, R. 1999, J. Brit. Astron. Assoc. 109, 106 Google Scholar
Munari, U., et al. 2004, A&A 418, L31 Google Scholar
Pan, X., Shao, M., Kulkarni, S.R. 2004, Nature 427, 326 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Percival, S.M. et al. 2005, A&A 429, 887 Google Scholar
Perryman, M.A.C. et al. 1998, A&A 331, 81 Google Scholar
Peterson, D.M. et al. 2006, Nature 440, 896 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinsonneault, M.H., et al. 1998, ApJ 504, 170 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robichon, N., et al. 1999, A&A 345, 471 Google Scholar
Rosenberg, H. 1911, Ast. Nach. 186, 71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schouten, W.J.A. 1919, Observatory 42, 240 Google Scholar
Soderblom, D.R. et al. 2005, AJ 129, 1616 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southworth, J. et al. 2005, A&A 429, 645 Google Scholar
Tomkin, J. 2005, in ASP Conf. Series, 336, 199 Google Scholar
Torres, G. 2003, IBVS 5402, 1 Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, F. 1983, Ph.D. Thesis, Leiden Univ.Google Scholar
VanLeeuwen, F. 1999, A&A 341, L71 Google Scholar
VanLeeuwen, F. 2004, in Transits of Venus, IAU Coll. 196, 347 Google Scholar
Van, L eeuwen, F., Hansen-Ruiz, C.S. 1997, in Hipparcos Venice'97, ESA SP-402, 689Google Scholar
White, R.E. et al. 2001, ApJ 132, 253 Google Scholar
Zwahlen, N. et al. 2004, A&A 425, L45 Google Scholar