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43 GHz SiO masers in late‐type stars with 86 GHz SiO masers and astrometry with VERA in the Galactic center
Author(s) -
Sjouwerman Loránt O.,
Messineo Maria,
Habing Harm J.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200385027
Subject(s) - maser , physics , very long baseline interferometry , astrometry , astrophysics , astronomy , galaxy , stars , galactic center
Abstract We present Very Large Array (VLA) observations of 43 GHz SiO ( J = 1 → 0, v = 0 and v = 1) maser emission in a sub‐sample of late‐type stars in the Inner Galaxy. This sample of stars has relatively strong(>0.5 Jy) 86 GHz SiO masers, and is located well within 2 degrees of the Galactic center (see contribution of Messineo et al. in these proceedings). It is our main intent to study the different maser properties of the sample, but as almost all 86 GHz SiO masing stars are detected in at least one of the 43 GHz SiO maser lines, we here suggest that our selection criteria are a very efficient way to discover circumstellar 43 GHz SiO masers that can be used as gravitational mass probes. The 43 GHz SiO masers are extremely useful for VLBI astrometric and proper motion measurements, for example with the Japanese “VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry” (VERA) VLBI network, allowing determination of Galactic structure, geometric distances (to individual objects, but also e.g. to the Galactic center), and types of orbits of individual stars, in particular in the central part of the Galaxy.