2014/08/27 by Carl Melis, Mark J. Reid, Amy J. Mioduszewski +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1256101
Cover-story article of the August 29th edition of Science. 22 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables; includes Supplementary material
arxiv created 2014/08/27 · arxiv updated 2015/06/22
Because of its proximity and its youth, the Pleiades open cluster of stars has been extensively studied and serves as a cornerstone for our understanding of the physical properties of young stars. This role is called into question by the "Pleiades distance controversy" wherein the cluster distance of 120.2+/-1.5 pc as measured by the optical space astrometry mission Hipparcos is significantly different from the distance of 133.5+/-1.2 pc derived with other techniques. We present an absolute trigonometric parallax distance measurement to the Pleiades cluster that uses very long baseline radio interferometry. This distance of 136.2+/-1.2 pc is the most accurate and precise yet presented for the cluster and is incompatible with the Hipparcos distance determination. Our results cement existing astrophysical models for Pleiades-age stars.