Discovery of the first methanol (CH3OH) maser in the Andromeda galaxy (M31)

Abstract

We present the first detection of a 6.7 GHz Class II methanol (CH3OH) maser in the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The CH3OH maser was found in a Very Large Array (VLA) survey during the fall of 2009. We have confirmed the methanol maser with the new Expanded VLA (EVLA), in operation since March 2010, but were unsuccessful in detecting a water maser at this location. A direct application for this methanol maser is the determination of the proper motion of M31, such as was obtained with water masers in M33 and IC10 previously. Unraveling the three-dimensional velocity of M31 would solve for the biggest unknown in the modeling of the dynamics and evolution of the Local Group of galaxies.

Letter, accepted by ApJL

References in corpus (6)

• Water maser motions in W3(OH) and a determination of its distance
• M31 Transverse Velocity and Local Group Mass from Satellite Kinematics
• The Proper Motion of the Local Group Galaxy IC 10
• Water masers in the Local Group of galaxies
• Spectral Energy Distributions of 6.7 GHz methanol masers
• A Search for 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers in M33

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