银河系英仙臂的距离
Distance of the perseus spiral arm in the Milky Way
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摘要: 以地球轨道半径为基线, 借助目前世界上最高分辨率的甚长基线干涉阵(VLBA), 通过测量英仙臂中大质量恒星形成区W3OH的三角视差, 得到了银河系中距离太阳最近的英仙臂的距离为1.95±0.04千秒差距 (5.86×1016km). 这个工作解决了天文学中关于英仙臂距离的长期争论, 说明英仙臂显示强的运动学反常.Abstract: The distance to the massive star-forming region W3OH in the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way has been measured to be 1.95±0.04 kiloparsecs (5.86×1016 km), determined by triangulation using the Very Long Baseline Array with the Earth's orbit as one segment of a triangle. This resolves a long-standing discrepancy of a factor of two. The reason for the discrepancy is that this portion of the Perseus arm has anomalous motions.