2013/03/01 by G. Pietrzyński, D. Graczyk, W. Gieren +29 · 2 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature11878
published as Nature 495, 76-79 (07 March 2013) · 34 pages, 5 figures, 13 tables, published in the Nature, a part of our data comes from new unpublished OGLE-IV photometric data
openalex publication_date 2013/03/01 · arxiv created 2013/03/08 · arxiv updated 2013/03/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In the era of precision cosmology it is essential to determine the Hubble Constant with an accuracy of 3% or better. Currently, its uncertainty is dominated by the uncertainty in the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) which as the second nearest galaxy serves as the best anchor point of the cosmic distance scale. Observations of eclipsing binaries offer a unique opportunity to precisely and accurately measure stellar parameters and distances. The eclipsing binary method was previously applied to the LMC but the accuracy of the distance results was hampered by the need to model the bright, early-type systems used in these studies. Here, we present distance determinations to eight long-period, late- type eclipsing systems in the LMC composed of cool giant stars. For such systems we can accurately measure both the linear and angular sizes of their components and avoid the most important problems related to the hot early-type systems. Our LMC distance derived from these systems is demonstrably accurate to 2.2 % (49.97 +/- 0.19 (statistical) +/- 1.11 (systematic) kpc) providing a firm base for a 3 % determination of the Hubble Constant, with prospects for improvement to 2 % in the future.