Astrometry of H2O masers in nearby star-forming regions with VERA II SVS 13 in NGC 1333

Abstract

We report on the results of multiepoch very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of the 22 GHz H2O masers associated with the young stellar object SVS 13 in the NGC 1333 region. We carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, and measured the annual parallax of the maser features in SVS 13 of 4.25 ±0.32mas, corresponding to a distance of 235 ±18 pc from the Sun. Our result is consistent with a photometric distance of 220 pc, previously reported. Even though the maser features were detectable only for 6 months, the present result provides the distance to NGC 1333 with much higher accuracy than photometric methods. The absolute positions and proper motions have been derived, revealing that the H2O masers with LSR (local standard of rest) velocities of 7-8 kms -1 are most likely associated with VLA 4A, which is a radio counterpart of SVS 13. It is currently difficult to attribute the observed proper motions of the maser features to either the jet or the rotating circumstellar disk associated with VLA 4A, which should be investigated through future high-resolution astrometric observations of VLA4A and other radio sources in NGC 1333. © 2008. Astronomical Society of Japan.