2006/11/07 by A. Brunthaler, Brunthaler, A., M. J. Reid +7 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Developments in Astronomy #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0611208
13 pages 8 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 8th EVN Symposium, Torun September 26-29, 2006 (invited Review), also available at http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/staff/abrunthaler/pub.shtml
arxiv created 2006/11/07 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Measuring the proper motions and geometric distances of galaxies within the Local Group is very important for our understanding of the history, present state and future of the Local Group. Currently, proper motion measurements using optical methods are limited only to the closest companions of the Milky Way. However, Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) provides the best angular resolution in astronomy and phase-referencing techniques yield astrometric accuracies of ~ 10 micro-arcseconds. This makes a measurement of proper motions and angular rotation rates of galaxies out to a distance of ~ 1 Mpc feasible. This article presents results of VLBI observations of regions of H2O maser activity in the Local Group galaxies M33 and IC10. These measurements promise a new handle on dynamical models for the Local Group and the mass and dark matter halo of Andromeda and the Milky Way. (Abridged)