We report a new geometric maser distance estimate to the active galaxy NGC 4258. The data for the new model are maser line-of-sight velocities and sky positions from 18 epochs of Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations, and line-of-sight accel
erations measured from a 10-year monitoring program of the 22 GHz maser emission of NGC 4258. The new model includes both disk warping and confocal elliptical maser orbits with differential precession. The distance to NGC 4258 is 7.60 +/- 0.17 +/- 0.15 Mpc, a 3% uncertainty including formal fitting and systematic terms. The resulting Hubble Constant, based on the use of the Cepheid Variables in NGC 4258 to recalibrate the Cepheid distance scale (Riess et al. 2011), is H_0 = 72.0 +/- 3.0 km/s/Mpc.
An astrophysical MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is a source of stimulated spectral line emission. Maser emission is observed from the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars, molecular clouds/star-forming regions
, active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants, comets, and the Saturnian moons. It arises from molecules such as water (H2O), hydroxyl radicals (OH), methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (CH2O), silicon monoxide (SiO), ammonia (NH3), silicon sulphide (SiS), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and from atomic hydrogen recombination lines. Masers are compact, of high brightness temperature, and often display narrow spectral line widths, polarized emission and variability. Free electron-cyclotron astrophysical masers additionally exist.
