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Register a new userTowards Proper Motions in the Local Group
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Authors
A. Brunthaler
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Key and still largely missing parameters for measuring the mass content and distribution of the Local Group are the proper motion vectors of its member galaxies. The problem when trying to derive the gravitational potential of the Local Group is that usually only radial velocities are known, and hence statistical approaches have to be used. The expected proper motions for galaxies within the Local Group, ranging from 20 to 100 $mu$as/yr, are detectable with VLBI using the phase-referencing technique. We present phase-referencing observations of bright masers in IC~10 and M33 with respect to background quasars. We observed the H$_2$O masers in IC10 three times over a period of two months to check the accuracy of the relative positions. The relative positions were obtained by modeling the interferometer phase data for the maser sources referenced to the background quasars. The model allowed for a relative position shift for the source and a single vertical atmospheric delay error in the correlator model for each antenna. The rms of the relative positions for the three observations is only 0.01 mas, which is approximately the expected position error due to thermal noise. Also, we present a method to measure the geometric distance to M33. This will allow re-calibration of the extragalactic distance scale based on Cepheids. The method is to measure the relative proper motions of two H$_2$O maser sources on opposite sides of M33. The measured angular rotation rate, coupled with other measurements of the inclination and rotation speed of the galaxy, yields a direct distance measurement.
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Our knowledge of the dynamics and masses of galaxies in the Local Group has long been limited by the fact that only line-of-sight velocities were observationally accessible. This introduces significant degeneracies in dynamical models, which can only be resolved by measuring also the velocity components perpendicular to the line of sight. However, beyond the solar neighborhood, the corresponding proper motions have generally been too small to measure. This has changed dramatically over the past decade, especially due to the angular resolution and stability available on the Hubble Space Telescope. Proper motions can now be reliably measured throughout the Local Group, as illustrated by, e.g., the work of the HSTPROMO collaboration. In this review, I summarize the importance of proper motions for Local Group science, and I describe the current and future observational approaches and facilities available to measure proper motions. I highlight recent results on various Milky Way populations (globular clusters, the bulge, the metal-poor halo, hypervelocity stars, and tidal streams), dwarf satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds and the Andromeda System.
This article presents results of VLBI observations of regions of H2O maser activity in the Local Group galaxies M33 and IC10. Since all position measurements were made relative to extragalactic background sources, the proper motions of the two galaxies could be measured. For M33, this provides this galaxys three dimensional velocity, showing that this galaxy is moving with a velocity of 190 +/- 59 kms relative to the Milky Way. For IC10, we obtain a motion of 215 +/- 42 km/s relative to the Milky Way. These measurements promise a new handle on dynamical models for the Local Group and the mass and dark matter halo of Andromeda and the Milky Way.
We present measurements of internal proper motions at more than five hundred positions of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula, based on images acquired with WFPC2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope at two epochs separated by 7.695 years. Comparison of the two observations shows clearly the expansion of the nebula. We measured the amplitude and direction of the motion of local structures in the nebula by determining their relative shift during that interval. In order to assess the potential uncertainties in the determination of proper motions in this object, and in general, the measurements were performed using two different methods, used previously in the literature. We compare the results from the two methods, and to perform the scientific analysis of the results we choose one, the cross-correlation method, as the more reliable. We go on to perform a criss-cross mapping analysis on the proper motion vectors which helps in the interpretation of the velocity pattern. Combining our results on the proper motions with radial velocity measurements obtained from high resolution spectroscopic observations, and employing an existing 3D model, we estimate the distance to the nebula as 1300 pc.
We describe a new method for determining proper motions of extended objects, and a pipeline developed for the application of this method. We then apply this method to an analysis of four epochs of [S~II] HST images of the HH~1 jet (covering a period of $sim 20$~yr). We determine the proper motions of the knots along the jet, and make a reconstruction of the past ejection velocity time-variability (assuming ballistic knot motions). This reconstruction shows an acceleration of the ejection velocities of the jet knots, with higher velocities at more recent times. This acceleration will result in an eventual merging of the knots in $sim 450$~yr and at a distance of $sim 80$ from the outflow source, close to the present-day position of HH~1.
Proper motions (PMs) are crucial to fully understand the internal dynamics of globular clusters (GCs). To that end, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Proper Motion (HSTPROMO) collaboration has constructed large, high-quality PM catalogues for 22 Galactic GCs. We highlight some of our exciting recent results: the first directly-measured radial anisotropy profiles for a large sample of GCs; the first dynamical distance and mass-to-light (M/L) ratio estimates for a large sample of GCs; and the first dynamically-determined masses for hundreds of blue-straggler stars (BSSs) across a large GC sample.
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