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(what is this?)Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Title: The first accurate parallax distance to a black hole
Authors:
J. C. A. Miller-Jones (1),
P. G. Jonker (2,3),
V. Dhawan (1),
W. Brisken (1),
M. P. Rupen (1),
G. Nelemans (4),
E. Gallo (5) ((1) NRAO, (2) SRON, (3) CfA, (4) Nijmegen, (5) MIT)
(Submitted on 27 Oct 2009)
Abstract: Using astrometric VLBI observations, we have determined the parallax of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cyg to be 0.418 +/- 0.024 milliarcseconds, corresponding to a distance of 2.39 +/- 0.14 kpc, significantly lower than the previously accepted value. This model-independent estimate is the most accurate distance to a Galactic stellar-mass black hole measured to date. With this new distance, we confirm that the source was not super-Eddington during its 1989 outburst. The fitted distance and proper motion imply that the black hole in this system likely formed in a supernova, with the peculiar velocity being consistent with a recoil (Blaauw) kick. The size of the quiescent jets inferred to exist in this system is less than 1.4 AU at 22 GHz. Astrometric observations of a larger sample of such systems would provide useful insights into the formation and properties of accreting stellar-mass black holes.
Comments: | Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. 6 pages, 2 figures |
Subjects: | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) |
Cite as: | arXiv:0910.5253 [astro-ph.HE] |
(or arXiv:0910.5253v1 [astro-ph.HE] for this version) |
Submission history
From: James Miller-Jones [view email][v1] Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:57:43 GMT (81kb)
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