Mapping Distances Across the Perseus Molecular Cloud Using CO Observations, Stellar Photometry, and Gaia DR2 Parallax Measurements

Abstract

We present a new technique to determine distances to major star-forming regions across the Perseus Molecular Cloud, using a combination of stellar photometry, astrometric data, and ${}^{12}\mathrm{CO}$ spectral-line maps. Incorporating the Gaia DR2 parallax measurements when available, we start by inferring the distance and reddening to stars from their Pan-STARRS1 and 2MASS photometry, based on a technique presented in Green et al. 2014; Green et al. 2015 and implemented in their 3D "Bayestar" dust map of three-quarters of the sky. We then refine the Green et al. technique by using the velocity slices of a CO spectral cube as dust templates and modeling the cumulative distribution of dust along the line of sight towards these stars as a linear combination of the emission in the slices. Using a nested sampling algorithm, we fit these per-star distance-reddening measurements to find the distances to the CO velocity slices towards each star-forming region. This results in distance estimates explicitly tied to the velocity structure of the molecular gas. We determine distances to the B5, IC348, B1, NGC1333, L1448, and L1451 star-forming regions and find that individual clouds are located between $\approx 275-300$ pc, with typical combined uncertainties of $\approx 5\%$. We find that the velocity gradient across Perseus corresponds to a distance gradient of about 25 pc, with the eastern portion of the cloud farther away than the western portion. We determine an average distance to the complex of $294\pm 17$ pc, about 60 pc higher than the distance derived to the western portion of the cloud using parallax measurements of water masers associated with young stellar objects. The method we present is not limited to the Perseus Complex, but may be applied anywhere on the sky with adequate CO data in the pursuit of more accurate 3D maps of molecular clouds in the solar neighborhood and beyond.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (43)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• The Gaia mission
• PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
• MultiNest: an efficient and robust Bayesian inference tool for cosmology and particle physics
• The Milky Way in Molecular Clouds: A New Complete CO Survey
• Gaia Data Release 2: The astrometric solution
• The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: I. Stellar Number Density Distribution
• A Hipparcos census of the nearby OB associations
• The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: II. Stellar Metallicity
• PolyChord: next-generation nested sampling
• A Three-Dimensional Map of Milky-Way Dust
• Galactic Reddening in 3D from Stellar Photometry - An Improved Map
• Planck Early Results: All sky temperature and dust optical depth from Planck and IRAS: Constraints on the "dark gas" in our galaxy
• Bolocam Survey for 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Emission in the c2d Legacy Clouds. I. Perseus
• Mapping the interstellar dust with near-infrared observations: An optimized multi-band technique
• CO Isotopologues in the Perseus Molecular Cloud Complex: the X-Factor and Regional Variations
• The COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions: Phase I Data
• Astrometry of Water Maser Sources in Nearby Molecular Clouds with VERA - II. SVS 13 in NGC 1333
• Kinematic Distances to Molecular Clouds identified in the Galactic Ring Survey
• The Optical-Infrared Extinction Curve and its Variation in the Milky Way
• An Ammonia Spectral Atlas of Dense Cores in Perseus
• Modeling CO Emission: I. CO as a Column Density Tracer and the X-Factor in Molecular Clouds
• A Large Catalog of Accurate Distances to Molecular Clouds from PS1 Photometry
• The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS). V. Distances and Kinematics of the Perseus molecular cloud
• The COMPLETE Survey of Outflows in Perseus
• Dynamics of Dense Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds: VI. Perseus Observed with MIPS
• NICEST, a near-infrared color excess method tailored for small-scale structures
• Class 0 Protostars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud: A Correlation Between the Youngest Protostars and the Dense Gas Distribution
• Quantifying Observational Projection Effects Using Molecular Cloud Simulations
• The enigmatic core L1451-mm: a first hydrostatic core? or a hidden VeLLO?
• Measuring Distances and Reddenings for a Billion Stars: Towards A 3D Dust Map from Pan-STARRS 1
• Astrometry of H${}_2$O Masers in Nearby Star-Forming Regions with VERA --- IV. L1448C
• Sampling Errors in Nested Sampling Parameter Estimation
• Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and Their Evolution with the SMA (MASSES). Multiplicity and the Physical Environment in L1448N
• Magnetic Seismology of Interstellar Gas Clouds: Unveiling a Hidden Dimension
• Evidence for Grain Growth in Molecular Clouds: A Bayesian Examination of the Extinction Law in Perseus
• The properties of SCUBA cores in the Perseus molecular cloud: the bias of clump-finding algorithms
• Kinetic Tomography I: A Method for Mapping the Milky Way's Interstellar Medium in Four Dimensions
• Kinetic Tomography. II. A second method for mapping the velocity field of the Milky Way Interstellar Medium and a comparison with spiral structure models
• CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey: Dense Gas in the Young L1451 Region of Perseus
• Kinematics of a young low-mass star forming core: Understanding the evolutionary state of the First Core Candidate L1451-mm
• Contraction Signatures Toward Dense Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

Cited by in corpus (79)

• dynesty: A Dynamic Nested Sampling Package for Estimating Bayesian Posteriors and Evidences
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. V: Geometric and photogeometric distances to 1.47 billion stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3
• A Large Catalog of Accurate Distances to Local Molecular Clouds: The Gaia DR2 Edition
• A protostellar system fed by a streamer of 10,500 au length
• PRODIGE -- Envelope to disk with NOEMA I. A 3000 au streamer feeding a Class I protostar
• On the Three-Dimensional Structure of Local Molecular Clouds
• Hot Corinos Chemical Diversity: Myth or Reality?
• Relative Alignment Between the Magnetic Field and Molecular Gas Structure in the Vela C Giant Molecular Cloud using Low and High Density Tracers
• Highly Ordered and Pinched Magnetic Fields in the Class 0 Proto-Binary System L1448 IRS 2
• 3D dynamics of the Orion cloud complex -- Discovery of coherent radial gas motions at the 100-pc scale
• The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Associated with a Network of Filaments in NGC 1333
• Velocity-coherent Filaments in NGC 1333: Evidence for Accretion Flow?
• Physical properties of the ambient medium and of dense cores in the Perseus star-forming region derived from Herschel Gould Belt Survey observations
• Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS). X. Interstellar Complex Organic Molecules in the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A outflows
• 3D magnetic field morphology of the Perseus molecular cloud
• The specific angular momentum radial profile in dense cores: improved initial conditions for disk formation
• Implications of a hot atmosphere/corino from ALMA observations towards NGC1333 IRAS 4A1
• Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS). VI. Chemical evolution of sulfuretted species along the outflows driven by the low-mass protostellar binary NGC1333-IRAS4A
• Interferometric observations of warm deuterated methanol in the inner regions of low-mass protostars
• Resolving Linear Polarization due to Emission and Extinction of Aligned Dust Grains on NGC1333 IRAS4A with JVLA and ALMA
• The Mass Evolution of Protostellar Disks and Envelopes in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• Probing the physics of star formation (ProPStar): I. First resolved maps of the electron fraction and cosmic-ray ionization rate in NGC 1333
• Revealing the dust grain size in the inner envelope of the Class I protostar Per-emb-50
• Successive deuteration in low-mass star-forming regions: the case of D${}_2$-methanol (CHD${}_2$OH) in IRAS 16293-2422
• Three-dimensional dust density structure of the Orion, Cygnus X,Taurus, and Perseus star-forming regions
• Flow of gas detected from beyond the filaments to protostellar scales in Barnard 5
• Molecular cloud distances based on the MWISP CO survey and Gaia DR2
• Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the SMA (MASSES) -- Full Data Release
• Connecting the Scales: Large Area High-resolution Ammonia Mapping of NGC 1333
• A train of shocks at 3000 au scale? Exploring the clash of an expanding bubble into the NGC 1333 IRAS 4 region. SOLIS XIV
• Neutral vs Ion Linewidths in Barnard 5: Evidence for Penetration by MHD Waves
• Maps of the number of HI clouds along the line of sight at high galactic latitude
• Probing the Physics of Star-Formation (ProPStar): II. The first systematic search for streamers toward protostars
• Dissecting the super-critical filaments embedded in the 0.5 pc subsonic region of Barnard 5
• ALMA observations of envelopes around first hydrostatic core candidates
• The SVS13-A Class I chemical complexity as revealed by S-bearing species. SOLIS XIII
• The substructure of the Perseus star forming region: A survey with Gaia DR2
• CH${}_3$CN deuteration in the SVS13-A Class I hot-corino. SOLIS XV
• Two-component Magnetic Field along the Line of Sight to the Perseus Molecular Cloud: Contribution of the Foreground Taurus Molecular Cloud
• The Infall Motion in the Low-Mass Protostellar Binary NGC 1333 IRAS 4A1/4A2
• Extinction of Taurus, Orion, Perseus and California Molecular Clouds Based on the LAMOST, 2MASS and Gaia surveys I: Three-dimensional Extinction and Structure
• The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Evidence for Pinched Magnetic Fields in Quiescent Filaments of NGC 1333
• The cosmic DANCe of Perseus I: Membership, phase-space structure, mass, and energy distributions
• Streamers feeding the SVS13-A protobinary system: astrochemistry reveals accretion shocks?
• PRODIGE -- envelope to disk with NOEMA. IV. An infalling gas bridge surrounding two Class 0/I systems in L1448N
• ALMA Observations toward the S-shaped Outflow and the Envelope around NGC1333 IRAS 4A2
• IRAS4A1: Multi-wavelength continuum analysis of a very flared Class 0 disk
• FAUST XX. The chemical structure and temperature profile of the IRAS 4A2 hot corino at 20-50 au
• Improved Measurements of Molecular Cloud Distances Based on Global Search
• Turbulence and Accretion: a High-resolution Study of the B5 Filaments
• Tracking the ice mantle history in the Solar-type Protostars of NGC 1333 IRAS 4
• ALMA ACA study of the H${}_2$S/OCS ratio in low-mass protostars
• Alignment of dense molecular core morphology and velocity gradients with ambient magnetic fields
• Photometric and Spectroscopic monitoring of YSOs in nearby star forming regions. I. Eruptive YSOs
• Modeling snowline locations in protostars: The impact of the structure of protostellar cloud cores
• First sample of ${\mathrm{N}}_2{\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ nitrogen isotopic ratio measurements in low-mass protostars
• Gas infalling motions in the envelopes of Very Low Luminosity Objects
• Evolution and Kinematics of Protostellar Envelopes in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• Deep Search for Glycine Conformers in Barnard 5
• Was Earth's water acquired locally during the earliest phases of the Solar System formation?
• The "C": The large Chameleon-Musca-Coalsack cloud
• Constraints of the formation and abundances of methyl carbamate, a glycine isomer, in hot corinos
• The CARMA-NRO Orion Survey: Statistical Signatures of Feedback in the Orion A Molecular Cloud
• FAUST XV. A disk wind mapped by CH${}_3$OH and SiO in the inner 300 au of the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A2 protostar
• PRODIGE - envelope to disk with NOEMA: V. Low 12C/13C ratios for CH3OH and CH3CN in hot corinos
• Confirmation of the outflow in L1451-mm: SiO line and CH${}_3$OH maser detections
• ANTIHEROES-PRODIGE: Quantifying the connection from envelope to disk with the IRAM 30m telescope and NOEMA I. Attack of the streamers: L1448N's fight for order in the chaos
• A Novel Survey for Young Substellar Objects with the W band Filter.V. IC 348 and Barnard 5 in the Perseus Cloud
• Density Exponent Analysis: Gravity-driven steepening of the density profiles of star-forming regions
• Herschel 158$\mu$m [CII] Observations of "CO-dark" Gas in the Perseus Giant Molecular Cloud
• The factors that influence protostellar multiplicity I: Gas temperature, density, and mass in Perseus with Nobeyama
• Toward a 3D kinetic tomography of Taurus clouds: II. A new automated technique and its validation
• Beetroots: spatially-regularized Bayesian inference of physical parameter maps -- Application to Orion
• Modeling Two First Hydrostatic Core Candidates Barnard 1b-N and 1b-S
• Fine-tuning the complex organic molecule formation: sulfur and CO ice as regulators of surface chemistry
• Deuterium fractionation and CO depletion in Barnard 5
• c-C3H2 deuteration towards prestellar and starless cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• The factors that influence protostellar multiplicity II. Gas temperature and mass in Perseus with APEX
• Effects of magnetic field orientations in dense cores on gas kinematics in protostellar envelopes