THE FIRST ACCURATE PARALLAX DISTANCE TO A BLACK HOLE
Author(s)
Miller-Jones, J. C. A.; Jonker, P. G.; Dhawan, V.; Brisken, W.; Rupen, M. P.; Nelemans, G.; Gallo, Elena; ... Show more Show less
DownloadMiller-Jones-2009-THE FIRST ACCURATE P.pdf (266.1Kb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Using astrometric VLBI observations, we have determined the parallax of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cyg to be 0.418 [plus or minus sign] 0.024 mas, corresponding to a distance of 2.39 [plus or minus sign] 0.14 kpc, significantly lower than the previously accepted value. This model-independent estimate is the most accurate distance to a Galactic stellar-mass black hole measured to date. With this new distance, we confirm that the source was not super-Eddington during its 1989 outburst. The fitted distance and proper motion imply that the black hole in this system likely formed in a supernova, with the peculiar velocity being consistent with a recoil (Blaauw) kick. The size of the quiescent jets inferred to exist in this system is <1.4 AU at 22 GHz. Astrometric observations of a larger sample of such systems would provide useful insights into the formation and properties of accreting stellar-mass black holes.
Date issued
2009-12Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchJournal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society
Citation
Miller-Jones, J. C. A., P. G. Jonker, V. Dhawan, W. Brisken, M. P. Rupen, G. Nelemans, and E. Gallo. “THE FIRST ACCURATE PARALLAX DISTANCE TO A BLACK HOLE.” The Astrophysical Journal 706, no. 2 (November 12, 2009): L230–L234. © 2009 American Astronomical Society.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0004-637X
1538-4357