Micro-Arcsecond Radio Astrometry

Abstract

Astrometry provides the foundation for astrophysics. Accurate positions are required for the association of sources detected at different times or wavelengths, and distances are essential to estimate the size, luminosity, mass, and ages of most objects. Very Long Baseline Interferometry at radio wavelengths, with diffraction-limited imaging at sub-milliarcsec resolution, has long held the promise of micro-arcsecond astrometry. However, only in the past decade has this been routinely achieved. Currently, parallaxes for sources across the Milky Way are being measured with ~10 uas accuracy and proper motions of galaxies are being determined with accuracies of ~1 uas/y. The astrophysical applications of these measurements cover many fields, including star formation, evolved stars, stellar and super-massive black holes, Galactic structure, the history and fate of the Local Group, the Hubble constant, and tests of general relativity. This review summarizes the methods used and the astrophysical applications of micro-arcsecond radio astrometry.

To appear in Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2014)

References in corpus (27)

• Trigonometric Parallaxes of High Mass Star Forming Regions: the Structure and Kinematics of the Milky Way
• Trigonometric Parallaxes of Massive Star Forming Regions: VI. Galactic Structure, Fundamental Parameters and Non-Circular Motions
• Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity
• Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre
• The distance to the Orion Nebula
• A new Cepheid distance to the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and its implications for the Hubble Constant
• RadioAstron -- a Telescope with a Size of 300 000 km: Main Parameters and First Observational Results
• Water maser motions in W3(OH) and a determination of its distance
• Opacity in compact extragalactic radio sources and its effect on astrophysical and astrometric studies
• VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions I. The distance to T Tauri with 0.4% accuracy
• Progress in Measurements of the Gravitational Bending of Radio Waves Using the VLBA
• Parallaxes for W49N and G048.60+0.02: Distant Star Forming Regions in the Perseus Spiral Arm
• A Parallactic Distance of 389 +24/-21 parsecs to the Orion Nebula Cluster from Very Long Baseline Array Observations
• Pulsar Parallaxes at 5 GHz with the Very Long Baseline Array
• Extremely high precision VLBI astrometry of PSR J0437-4715 and implications for theories of gravity
• Spacecraft VLBI and Doppler tracking: algorithms and implementation
• Trigonometric Parallaxes of Massive Star Forming Regions: V. G23.01-0.41 and G23.44-0.18
• The Origin and Motion of PSR J0538+2817 in S147
• Implications of a VLBI Distance to the Double Pulsar J0737-3039A/B
• Is there a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way?
• The Proper Motion of the Local Group Galaxy IC 10
• Improved VLBI astrometry of OH maser stars
• The spatio-kinematical structure and distance of the pre-planetary nebula IRAS 19134+2131
• The nature of the methanol maser ring G23.657-00.127
• The Distance and Size of the Red Hypergiant NML Cyg from VLBA and VLA Astrometry
• Accurate Parallax Measurement toward the Symbiotic Star R Aquarii
• Absolute kinematics of radio source components in the complete S5 polar cap sample. III. First wide-field high-precision astrometry at 15.4 GHz

Cited by in corpus (107)

• Gaia Data Release 2: Catalogue validation
• Gaia Data Release 1: Catalogue validation
• Strong-field Gravity Tests with the Double Pulsar
• A Parallax Distance to the Microquasar GRS 1915+105 and a Revised Estimate of its Black Hole Mass
• The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) II. Distances and structure towards the Orion Molecular Clouds
• The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) I. Trigonometric parallax distances and depth of the Ophiuchus complex
• Gaia-DR2 confirms VLBA parallaxes in Ophiuchus, Serpens and Aquila
• An Overview of the 2014 ALMA Long Baseline Campaign
• Key Science Goals for the Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescope
• Kinematic Distances: A Monte Carlo Method
• The First VERA Astrometry Catalog
• Mapping Spiral Structure on the far side of the Milky Way
• Distance estimates for AGB stars from parallax measurements
• A Census of Large-Scale ($\ge$ 10 pc), Velocity-Coherent, Dense Filaments in the Northern Galactic Plane: Automated Identification Using Minimum Spanning Tree
• Precise radio astrometry and new developments for the next generation of instruments
• The Proper Motion of the Galactic Center Pulsar Relative to Sagittarius A*
• The Gaia reference frame for bright sources examined using VLBI observations of radio stars
• Metallicity Structure in the Milky Way Disk Revealed by Galactic HII Regions
• The spiral structure of the Milky Way
• Parallax of Galactic Cepheids from Spatially Scanning the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope: The Case of SS Canis Majoris
• Microarcsecond Astrometry: Science Highlights from Gaia
• The Radio Fundamental Catalogue. I. Astrometry
• Comparison of Gaia DR2 Parallaxes of Stars with VLBI Astrometry
• Constraining the quasar radio-loud fraction at $z\sim 6$ with deep radio observations
• Star Formation and ISM Properties in Host Galaxies of Three Far-infrared Luminous Quasars at $z\sim 6$
• MultiView High Precision VLBI Astrometry at Low Frequencies
• Repeated Imaging of Massive Black Hole Binary Orbits with Millimeter Interferometry: measuring black hole masses and the Hubble constant
• Characterisation of Galactic carbon stars and related stars from Gaia-EDR3
• The Power of Simultaneous Multi-Frequency Observations for mm-VLBI: Astrometry up to 130 GHz with the KVN
• Microarcsecond VLBI pulsar astrometry with PSRPI I. Two binary millisecond pulsars with white dwarf companions
• First Parallax Measurements Towards a 6.7 GHz Methanol Maser with the Australian Long Baseline Array - Distance to G339.884-1.259
• Anomalous peculiar motions of high-mass young stars in the Scutum spiral arm
• ALMA Imprint of Intergalactic Dark Structures in the Gravitational Lens SDP.81
• Capabilities and prospects of the East Asia Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network
• Properties of carbon stars in the Solar neighbourhood based on Gaia DR2 astrometry
• Techniques for Accurate Parallax Measurements for 6.7-GHz Methanol Masers
• An Optical and Infrared Photometric Study of the Young Open Cluster IC 1805 in the Giant H II Region W4
• No apparent superluminal motion in the first-known jetted tidal disruption event Swift J1644+5734
• Parallaxes of 6.7-GHz Methanol Masers towards the G305.2 High-Mass Star Formation Region
• Parallaxes for star forming regions in the inner Perseus spiral arm
• High-precision Astrometric Millimeter Very Long Baseline Interferometry Using a New Method for Multi-Frequency Calibration
• High-Precision Radio and Infrared Astrometry of LSPM J1314+1320AB - I: Parallax, Proper Motions, and Limits on Planets
• Localizing FRBs through VLBI with the Algonquin Radio Observatory 10-m Telescope
• Impact of distance determinations on Galactic structure. I. Young and intermediate-age tracers
• VLBI for Gravity Probe B: The Guide Star IM Pegasi
• Stellar Overdensity in the Local Arm in Gaia DR2
• VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions VII. Monoceros R2
• Observational Evidence for a Thick Disk of Dark Molecular Gas in the Outer Galaxy
• Astrometry of OH/IR stars using 1612 MHz hydroxyl masers. I. Annual parallaxes of WX Psc and OH138.0+7.2
• Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) of the JUICE mission
• Testing the magnetic flux paradigm for AGN radio loudness with a radio intermediate quasar
• Water maser variability in a high-mass YSO outburst -- VERA and ALMA observations of S255 NIRS 3
• Gravitational lensing of massive particles by a black-bounce-Schwarzschild black hole
• East Asian VLBI Network Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei Jets: Imaging with KaVA+Tianma+Nanshan
• Variable Radio Emission from the Young Stellar Host of a Hot Jupiter
• Submillimeter H${}_2$O megamasers in NGC 4945 and the Circinus galaxy
• The Parallax of the Red Hypergiant VX Sgr with Accurate Tropospheric Delay Calibration
• Overview of the Observing System and Initial Scientific Accomplishments of the East Asian VLBI Network (EAVN)
• Milli-arcsecond imaging of the radio emission from the quasar with the most massive black hole at reionization
• 3D orbital architecture of a dwarf binary system and its planetary companion
• An International Survey of Front-End Receivers and Observing Performance of Telescopes for Radio Astronomy
• A VLBA Survey of radio stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster: II. Astrometry
• Frequency-Dependent Core Shifts in Ultracompact Quasars
• SiS in the circumstellar envelope of IRC +10126: maser and quasi-thermal emission
• A compact core-jet structure in the changing-look Seyfert NGC 2617
• Simulated Galactic methanol maser distribution to constrain Milky Way parameters
• Inverse Multview I: Multi-Calibrator inverse phase referencing for Microarcsecond VLBI Astrometry
• A VLBA Trigonometric Parallax for RR Aql and the Mira PL Relation
• VERA astrometry toward the Perseus arm gap
• The Science Case for Simultaneous mm-Wavelength Receivers in Radio Astronomy
• Monitoring of the polarized $H_{2}O$ maser emission around the massive protostars W75N(B)-VLA1 and W75N(B)-VLA2
• Leading-order deflection of particles by a moving Schwarzschild lens with a two-dimensional velocity
• VLBI observations of the H2O gigamaser in TXS2226-184
• Inverse MultiView II: Microarcsecond Trigonometric Parallaxes for Southern Hemisphere 6.7~GHz Methanol Masers G232.62+00.99 and G323.74$-$00.26
• A Milliarcsecond-accurate Position for Sagittarius A*
• Study of the Galactic Rotation Based on Masers and Radio Stars with VLBI Measurements of Their Parallaxes
• The Science of Fundamental Catalogs
• Time-lapse Very Long Baseline Interferometry Imaging of the Close Active Binary HR 1099
• Gas kinematics in massive star-forming regions from the Perseus spiral arm
• Overall variation of the $H_{2}O$ masers around W Hydrae in 28 years
• Toward Astrometric Constraints on a Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC\,4472
• Vibrationally excited HCN transitions in circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich AGB stars
• HI mapping of the Leo Triplet: Morphologies and kinematics of tails and bridges
• High-Resolution Imaging of Water Maser Emission in the active galaxies NGC 6240 and M51
• Water Masers in the Andromeda Galaxy: II. Where Do Masers Arise?
• Characterizing the Evolved Stellar Population in the Galactic Foreground I: Bolometric Magnitudes, Spatial Distribution and P-L Relations
• Direct High-Resolution Imaging of Earth-Like Exoplanets
• Gravitational deflection of light in polar-axis plane of a moving Kerr-Newman black hole
• Revealing two radio active galactic nuclei extremely near PSR J0437$-$4715
• Prospects for Wideband VLBI Correlation in the Cloud
• A long-lived compact jet in the black hole X-ray binary candidate AT2019wey
• Testing the null energy condition with precise distance measurements
• IC 485:a new candidate disk-maser galaxy at $\sim$100 Mpc distance. Milliarcsecond resolution study of the galaxy nucleus and of the $H_{2}O$ megamaser
• VLBI detection of nearby (< 100 pc) young stars: Pilot observations
• Technetium-rich M Stars: Prime diagnostics of recent third dredge-up events on the Asymptotic Giant Branch
• Water Maser Survey towards off-plane O-rich AGBs around the orbital plane of the Sagittarius Stellar Stream
• Structural and spectral properties of Galactic plane variable radio sources
• Influence of the Galactic gravitational field on the positional accuracy of extragalactic sources. II Observational appearances and detectability
• Leading-order gravitational time delay of massive particles by a moving Schwarzschild lens
• The Effelsberg survey of FU~Orionis and EX~Lupi objects II. -- H${}_2$O maser observations
• Rethinking Habitability using Biogenic Precursors: Formaldehyde in Millimeter Molecular Clouds of the Inner Galaxy
• Astrometric Galactic maser measurements cross-matched with Gaia
• First Trigonometric Parallax Measurements with the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA)
• Swift J1644+5734: the EVN view
• Strong field gravitational lensing of particles by a black-bounce-Schwarzschild black hole
• Probing Dark Matter Substructure with Image Number Anomaly in Strong Lensing Systems
• Proper Motion and Natal Kick in the Galactic Black Hole X-ray Binary AT2019wey