OPTICAL GRAVITATIONAL LENSING EXPERIMENT - DISTANCE TO THE MAGELLANICCLOUDS WITH THE RED CLUMP STARS - ARE THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS 15-PERCENT CLOSER THAN GENERALLY ACCEPTED
A. Udalski et al., OPTICAL GRAVITATIONAL LENSING EXPERIMENT - DISTANCE TO THE MAGELLANICCLOUDS WITH THE RED CLUMP STARS - ARE THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS 15-PERCENT CLOSER THAN GENERALLY ACCEPTED, Acta Astronomica, 48(1), 1998, pp. 1-17
We present a new distance determination to the Large and Small Magella
nic Clouds using the newly developed red clump stars method (Paczynski
and Stanek 1998). This new, single-step, Hipparcos calibrated method
seems to be one of the most precise techniques of distance determinati
on with very small statistical error due to large number of red clump
stars usually available. The distances were determined independently a
long four lines-of-sight located at opposite sides of each Magellanic
Cloud. The results for each line-of-sight are very consistent. For the
SMC we obtain the distance modulus: m - M = 18.56 +/- 0.03 +/- 0.06 m
ag (statistical and systematic errors, respectively) and for the LMC:
m - M = 18.08 +/- 0.03 +/- 0.12 mag where systematic errors are mostly
due to uncertainty in reddening estimates. Both distances will be ref
ined and systematic errors reduced when accurate reddening maps for ou
r fields are available. Distance moduli to bath Magellanic Clouds are
approximate to 0.4 mag smaller than generally accepted values. The mod
ulus to the LMC is in good agreement with the recent determinations fr
om RR Lyrae type stars and upper limit resulting from the SN1987A echo
. We suspect that the distance to the LMC and SMC Is shorter by about
15% than previously assumed: 42 kpc and 52 kpc, respectively. Calibrat
ions of the period-luminosity relation for Cepheids which give overest
imated distances to the LMC and SMC are probably incorrect and require
urgent reanalysis. We also present our color-magnitude diagrams aroun
d the red clump for the LMC and SMC. We identify vertical red clump, f
irst noted by Zaritsky and Lin (1997), in the color-magnitude diagram
of both Magellanic Clouds and we interpret it as an evolutionary featu
re rather than unknown stellar population between the LMC and our Gala
xy.