2003/09/11 by Walter Brisken, Brisken, Walter
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0309324
7 pages. To appear in ASP conf. series "Future Directions in High Resolution Astronomy: The 10th Anniversary of the VLBA", J. D. Romney & M. J. Reid (eds.)
arxiv created 2003/09/11 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many features of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) contrive to make it the best telescope for pulsar astrometry. The measured proper motions and parallaxes allow distances and transverse velocities to be determined. These in turn provide clues to questions spanning nuclear astrophysics on scales of 10-23 m to the distribution of gas in the Galaxy on scales of 1020 m. Three pulsars are discussed in this paper. Among pulsars, B0950+08 has the most accurate VLBI-determined parallax. B1133+16 has a very high transverse velocity; its radial velocity is discussed. B0656+14 is a thermally detected neutron star. Determination of its distance has allowed its radius to be measured and its association with the Monogem ring supernova remnant (SNR) to be established, allowing a long-standing question in cosmic ray astrophysics to be addressed.