The Brightest Stars in Galaxies as Distance Indicators

Details The Brightest Stars in Galaxies as Distance Indicators The Brightest Stars in Galaxies as Distance Indicators

Apr 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997jkas...30...27l&link_type=abstract

Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society, vol. 30, no. 1, p. 27-70

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

9

Supergiants, Galaxies: Distances And Redshifts, Distance Scales

Scientific paper

The brightest stars in galaxies have been used as distance indicators since Hubble. However, the accuracy of the brightest stars for distance estimates has been controversial. Recently, Rozanski \& Rowan-Robinson [1994 : MNRAS, 271, 530] argued large errors of this method for the distance determination : 0.58 mag and 0.90 mag, respectively, for the brightest red stars and the brightest blue stars, while Karachentsev & Tikhonov [1994 : A\&A, 286, 718] suggested much smaller errors in the distance determination than the former: 0.37 mag for the brightest red stars and 0.46 mag for the brightest blue stars. The reasons for these conflicting results are not yet known. In this study we have investigated the accuracy of this method using a sample of 17 galaxies for which Cepheid distances are known and reliable photometry of the brightest stars are available. We have obtained the calibrations of the relations between the mean luminosities of the three blue and red brightest supergiants (BSGs and RSGs, respectively) and the total luminosities of the parent galaxies: < Mv(3)RSG >= 0.21MTB - 3.84, sigma(Mv) = 0.37mag, and delta mu_o = 0.47 mag for the brightest red supergiants, and = 0.30MTB - 3.02, sigma(MB) = 0.55 mag, and delta mu_o = 0.79 mag for the brightest blue supergiants. Also it is found that the errors in the distance determination are reduced by a factor of two, as the observing wavelengths increase from B-band to K-band. In conclusion, the brightest red supergiants are considered to be useful for determining the distances to resolved late-type galaxies.

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