The Megamaser Cosmology Project: The Maser Disk and Distance to NGC 6323

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The primary goal of the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) is to determine the Hubble constant H0 to 3% in order to constrain the equation-of-state parameter of dark energy. The key to measuring H0 to such precision is to measure distances to a number of galaxies spread across the sky using the megamaser method. In this poster, we present our latest VLBI map of the H2O maser accretion disk in the galaxy NGC 6323, and the maser distance to this galaxy. The VLBI map, based on nearly 100 hours of observation, shows a warped disk around the supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 6323. Assuming H0 to be 72 km/s/Mpc, the radii of the inner and outer edge of the disk are 0.15 pc and 0.29 pc, respectively, very similar to the well-studied case of NGC 4258. We also estimate the black hole mass using the rotation curve of the disk, which gives 1 x 107 Msun. While the overall disk structure and warp in NGC 6323 are similar to those in NGC 4258, the maser distribution at the systematic velocity seems to be quite different. Based on the measurements of the centripetal accelerations of the systematic masers, we infer that the masers are roughly distributed near two different radii. This structure adds some complexity in the analysis and modeling of the disk.

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