A distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to one per cent

Abstract

In the era of precision cosmology, it is essential to empirically determine the Hubble constant with an accuracy of one per cent or better. At present, the uncertainty on this constant is dominated by the uncertainty in the calibration of the Cepheid period - luminosity relationship (also known as Leavitt Law). The Large Magellanic Cloud has traditionally served as the best galaxy with which to calibrate Cepheid period-luminosity relations, and as a result has become the best anchor point for the cosmic distance scale. Eclipsing binary systems composed of late-type stars offer the most precise and accurate way to measure the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud. Currently the limit of the precision attainable with this technique is about two per cent, and is set by the precision of the existing calibrations of the surface brightness - colour relation. Here we report the calibration of the surface brightness-colour relation with a precision of 0.8 per cent. We use this calibration to determine the geometrical distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to 1 per cent based on 20 eclipsing binary systems. The final distane is 49.59 +/- 0.09 (statistical) +/- 0.54 (systematic) kiloparsecs.

Published in Nature 567, 200 (2019)

References in corpus (4)

• An eclipsing binary distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud accurate to 2 per cent
• Homogeneous studies of transiting extrasolar planets. I. Light curve analyses
• Binary orbit, physical properties, and evolutionary state of Capella (alpha Aurigae)
• Observational calibration of the projection factor of Cepheids IV. Period-projection factor relation of Galactic and Magellanic Cloud Cepheids

Cited by in corpus (129)

• Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM
• Cosmic Distances Calibrated to 1% Precision with Gaia EDR3 Parallaxes and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry of 75 Milky Way Cepheids Confirm Tension with LambdaCDM
• Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Tensions in Perspective
• The Expansion of the Universe is Faster than Expected
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Catalog of Periodic Variable Stars
• The Hubble Constant from Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances
• A measurement of the Hubble constant from Type II supernovae
• Cosmicflows 4: The Calibration of Optical and Infrared Tully-Fisher Relations
• The Parallax of Omega Centauri Measured from Gaia EDR3 and a Direct, Geometric Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch and the Hubble Constant
• The Extragalactic Distance Database: The Color-Magnitude Diagrams and Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances Catalog
• On the duration of the embedded phase of star formation
• Reflex motion in the Milky Way stellar halo resulting from the Large Magellanic Cloud infall
• Observations of Galactic and Extragalactic Novae
• The effect of the LMC on the Milky Way system
• An FRB Sent Me a DM: Constraining the Electron Column of the Milky Way Halo with Fast Radio Burst Dispersion Measures from CHIME/FRB
• The synchronised dance of the Magellanic Clouds' star formation history
• The Pisces Plume and the Magellanic Wake
• Standard Galactic Field RR Lyrae II: A Gaia DR2 calibration of the period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation
• The search for multiple populations in Magellanic Clouds clusters - V. Correlation between cluster age and abundance spreads
• The VMC survey -- XLIII. The spatially resolved star formation history across the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Empirical calibration of the reddening maps in the Magellanic Clouds
• A sub-2% Distance to M31 from Photometrically Homogeneous Near-Infrared Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relations Measured with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Classical Cepheid period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation in the Gaia bands
• Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances for MASSIVE and Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies
• Astrophysical Distance Scale The JAGB Method: I. Calibration and a First Application
• The period-luminosity relation of red supergiants with Gaia DR2
• Resolving the core of R136 in the optical
• Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C-MetaLL) survey: I. HARPS-N@TNG spectroscopy of 47 Classical Cepheid and 1 BL Her variables
• Observations of a Magellanic Corona
• High-precision distance measurements with classical pulsating stars
• The VMC Survey -- XLVIII. Classical Cepheids unveil the 3D geometry of the LMC
• Carbon stars as standard candles: I. The luminosity function of carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Tracing the Milky Way warp and spiral arms with classical Cepheids
• Return of the Big Glitcher: NICER timing and glitches of PSR J0537-6910
• Mysterious Odd Radio Circle near the Large Magellanic Cloud -- An Intergalactic Supernova Remnant?
• The matter beyond the ring: the recent evolution of SN 1987A observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
• ${}^{44}\mathrm{Ti}$ ejecta in young supernova remnants
• Astrophysical Distance Scale II. Application of the JAGB Method: A Nearby Galaxy Sample
• New LZ and PW(Z) relations of RR Lyrae stars calibrated with Gaia EDR3 parallaxes
• JWST NIRSpec observations of Supernova 1987A -- from the inner ejecta to the reverse shock
• The Cluster Ages Experiment (CASE). VIII. Age and Distance of the Globular Cluster 47 Tuc from the Analysis of Two Detached Eclipsing Binaries
• A beta Cephei pulsator and a changing orbital inclination in the high-mass eclipsing binary system VV Orionis
• Using classical Cepheids to study the far side of the Milky Way disk: I. Spectroscopic classification and the metallicity gradient
• The ASKAP-EMU Early Science Project: 888 MHz Radio Continuum Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A thin shell of ionized gas explaining the IR excess of classical Cepheids
• Cosmicflows-4: The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation Providing ~10,000 Distances
• Luminosity distribution of Type II supernova progenitors
• The Magellanic Edges Survey I. Description and First Results
• The period--luminosity relation for Mira variables in the Milky Way using Gaia DR3: a further distance anchor for $H_0$
• The Araucaria Project: High-precision orbital parallax and masses of eclipsing binaries from infrared interferometry
• The ASKAP-EMU Early Science Project:Radio Continuum Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Line Luminosities of Galactic and Magellanic Cloud Wolf-Rayet stars
• Inspecting the Cepheid distance ladder: The Hubble Space Telescope distance to the SNIa host galaxy NGC 5584
• Current Challenges in Cepheid Distance Calibrations Using Gaia EDR3
• The metallicity and distance of NGC 2403 from blue supergiants
• Carbon stars as standard candles: II. The median J magnitude as a distance indicator
• When a Period Is Not a Full Stop: Light Curve Structure Reveals Fundamental Parameters of Cepheid and RR Lyrae Stars
• Cepheids with giant companions. I. Revealing a numerous population of double-lined binary Cepheids
• Hunting for C-rich long-period variable stars in the Milky Way's bar-bulge using unsupervised classification of Gaia BP/RP spectra
• Analysing the spectral energy distributions of Galactic classical Cepheids
• The Araucaria project: High-precision orbital parallaxes and masses of binary stars. I. VLTI/GRAVITY observations of ten double-lined spectroscopic binaries
• First extragalactic measurement of the turbulence driving parameter: ALMA observations of the star-forming region N159E in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Kinetic temperature of massive star-forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde IV. The ALMA view of N113 and N159W in the LMC
• The Magellanic Edges Survey III. Kinematics of the disturbed LMC outskirts
• Cepheid metallicity in the Leavitt law (C-MetaLL) survey -- III. Simultaneous derivation of the Gaia parallax offset and Period-Luminosity-Metallicity coefficients
• Kinematics and Multi Band Period-Luminosity-Metallicity Relation of RR Lyrae Stars via Statistical Parallax
• Precise calibration of the dependence of surface brightness-colour relations on colour and class for late-type stars
• New type II Cepheids from VVV data towards the Galactic center
• An absolute calibration of the near-infrared Period-Luminosity Relations of Type II Cepheids in the Milky Way and in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Carbon stars as standard candles -- III. Un-binned maximum likelihood fitting and comparison with TRGB estimations
• Spatially Resolved Chandra Spectroscopy of the Large Magellanic Cloud Supernova Remnant N132D
• Milky Way Zero-Point Calibration of the JAGB Method: Using Thermally Pulsing AGB Stars in Galactic Open Clusters
• Precise Empirical Determination of Metallicity Dependence of Near-infrared Period-Luminosity Relations for RR Lyrae Variables
• SU Lyn -- a transient symbiotic star
• The January 2016 eruption of recurrent nova LMC 1968
• Shape of the outer stellar warp in the Large Magellanic Cloud disk
• RX J0529.8-6556: a BeXRB pulsar with an evolving optical period and out of phase X-ray outbursts
• Discovering strongly lensed quasar candidates with catalogue-based methods from DESI Legacy Surveys
• A Cepheid-Based Distance to the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 6814
• Prospects of strongly lensed fast radio bursts: Simultaneous measurement of post-Newtonian parameter and Hubble constant
• Tracking down the origin of superbubbles and supergiant shells in the Magellanic Clouds with Minkowski tensor analysis
• HARPS-N high spectral resolution observations of Cepheids II. The impact of the surface-brightness color relation on the Baade-Wesselink projection factor of eta Aql
• New ASKAP Radio Supernova Remnants and Candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Hubble tension: Change in dark energy or a case for modified gravity?
• Splitting the lentils: Clues to galaxy/black hole coevolution from the discovery of offset relations for non-dusty versus dusty (wet-merger-built) lenticular galaxies in the $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{spheroid}}$ diagram
• LMC N132D: A mature supernova remnant with a power-law gamma-ray spectrum extending beyond 8 TeV
• A Census of Thermally-Pulsing AGB stars in the Andromeda Galaxy and a First Estimate of their Contribution to the Global Dust Budget
• The morphology of the ejecta of SN 1987A at 31 years from 1150 to 10000 Å
• The Magellanic Edges Survey IV. Complex tidal debris in the SMC outskirts
• Radio Emission from Interstellar Shocks: Young Type Ia Supernova Remnants and the Case of N 103B in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Physical Properties of the Supernova Remnant Population in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Distances to Local Group Galaxies via Population II, Stellar Distance Indicators. II. The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal
• A helium-burning white dwarf binary as a supersoft X-ray source
• A Hydro-Based MCMC Analysis of SNR 0509-67.5 Revealing the Explosion Properties from Fluid Discontinuities Alone
• A segmented period-luminosity relation for nearby extragalactic $\delta$ Scuti stars
• Zwicky Transient Facility and Globular Clusters: The Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit Relations for Anomalous Cepheids Supplemented with Large Magellanic Cloud Sample
• A multiphase study of theoretical and observed light curves of classical Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• Towards early-type eclipsing binaries as extragalactic milestones: II. NLTE spectral analysis and stellar parameters of the detached O-type system OGLE-LMC-ECL-06782 in the LMC
• Towards early-type eclipsing binaries as extragalactic milestones: I. Physical parameters of OGLE-LMC-ECL-22270 and OGLE-LMC-ECL-06782
• A Distance Measurement to M33 Using Optical Photometry of Mira Variables
• The Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV)
• BAT99-9 -- a WC4 Wolf-Rayet star with nitrogen emission: Evidence for binary evolution?
• Surface brightness-colour relations of dwarf stars from detached eclipsing binaries -- I. Calibrating sample
• Radio Continuum Sources behind the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Astrophysical Distance Scale IV. Preliminary Zero-Point Calibration of the JAGB Method in the HST/WFC3-IR Broad J-Band (F110W) Filter
• Distance and age of the massive stellar cluster Westerlund 1. II. The eclipsing binary W36
• Light-time effect detected in fourteen eclipsing binaries
• Calibrating the surface brightness - color relation for late-type red giants stars in the visible domain using VEGA/CHARA interferometric observations
• Extinction towards the cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud: An extinction law from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet
• Deep VLT photometry of the faint stellar system in the Large Magellanic Cloud periphery YMCA-1
• Kinematical Analysis of Substructure in the Southern Periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of a ~30-Year-Duration Post-Nova Pulsating Supersoft Source in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Difference of photometric properties between regular and non-regular Miras in the Magellanic Clouds
• The flux-weighted gravity-luminosity relation of Galactic classical Cepheids
• A study of photoionized gas in two HII regions of the N44 complex in the LMC using MUSE observations
• Rapid Expansion of the Young Type Ia Supernova Remnant 0519-69.0: More Evidence for a Circumstellar Shell
• Predicting light curves of RR Lyrae variables using artificial neural network based interpolation of a grid of pulsation models
• An independent determination of the distance to supernova SN 1987A by means of the light echo AT 2019xis
• The 3D kinematics of stellar substructures in the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The episodic dust-making Wolf-Rayet star HD 38030 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The metallicity sensitivity of a surface brightness temperature scale
• Revisiting multiwavelength data on the supersoft X-ray source CAL 83
• Inferring properties of dust in supernovae with neural networks
• The Araucaria Project: Deep near-infrared photometric maps of Local and Sculptor Group galaxies. I. Carina, Fornax, Sculptor
• The stellar content of H72.97-69.39, a potential super star cluster in the making
• Evolved eclipsing binary systems in the Galactic bulge: Precise physical and orbital parameters of OGLE-BLG-ECL-305487 and OGLE-BLG-ECL-116218
• Spectroscopic Line Modeling of the Fastest Rotating O-type Stars
• Three-dimensional geometry and dust/gas ratios in massive star forming regions over the entire LMC as revealed by IRSF/SIRIUS survey
• Identifying Periodic Variable Stars and Eclipsing Binary Systems with Long-Term Las Cumbres Observatory Photometric Monitoring of ZTF J0139+5245