The Trigonometric Parallax of Cygnus X-1

Abstract

We report a direct and accurate measurement of the distance to the X-ray binary Cygnus X-1, which contains the first black hole to be discovered. The distance of 1.86 (-0.11,+0.12) kpc was obtained from a trigonometric parallax measurement using the Very Long Baseline Array. The position measurements are also sensitive to the 5.6 d binary orbit and we determine the orbit to be clockwise on the sky. We also measured the proper motion of Cygnus X-1 which, when coupled to the distance and Doppler shift, gives the three-dimensional space motion of the system. When corrected for differential Galactic rotation, the non-circular (peculiar) motion of the binary is only about 21 km/s, indicating that the binary did not experience a large "kick" at formation.

Paper I of three papers on Cygnus X-1; 13 pages including 3 figures and 2 tables, ApJ in press

References in corpus (7)

• Trigonometric Parallaxes of Massive Star Forming Regions: VI. Galactic Structure, Fundamental Parameters and Non-Circular Motions
• The distance to the Orion Nebula
• The Mass of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1
• The Extreme Spin of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1
• A 15.65 solar mass black hole in an eclipsing binary in the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 33
• Stellar Wind Variations During the X-ray High and Low States of Cygnus X-1
• Using the X-ray Dust Scattering Halo of Cygnus X-1 to determine distance and dust distributions

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