You are here: NRAO Public Wiki>Main Web>TWikiUsers>JimBraatz>MegamaserCosmologyProject (2020-06-15, JimBraatz) Edit wiki text Edit Attach Print version

The Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP)

MCPlogo short.jpg

Project Overview

The Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) is an NRAO Key Science Project to measure the Hubble Constant, H0, by determining geometric distances to circumnuclear 22 GHz H2O megamasers in galaxies well into the Hubble flow. In combination with the recent, exquisite observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by WMAP and Planck, these measurements provide a direct test of the standard cosmological model and constrain the equation of state of dark energy. The MCP has so far determined H0 = 73.9 ± 3.0 km/s/Mpc (Pesce et al. 2020) based on measurements of 5 megamaser galaxies in the Hubble flow. Work on additional galaxies is in progress, and we expect a slight improvement in the uncertainties on the measurement of H0 when the project is completed around Spring 2021. Our measurement so far is in agreement with other recent measurements based on local measurements in the universe (e.g. Riess et al. ).

Press Release

Main Results of MCP to Date

  • We have so far measured H0 = 73.9 +/- 3.0 km/s/Mpc based on maser distances to 5 galaxies (Pesce et al. 2020)
  • We have mapped maser disks in 20 galaxies and measured "gold standard" masses for their supermassive black holes, e.g. (Kuo et al. 2011).
  • The maser disks we mapped produce precise BH masses in relatively low-mass systems, where BH masses have been difficult to measure. Nearly all of the maser-based masses fall below the M-sigma relation defined by elliptical galaxies and have important implications for galactic evolution and BH feedback. (e.g. Greene et al. 2010)
  • The MCP and its pilot programs have discovered masers in 85 galaxies, about half of all known extragalactic water masers. see the spectra

  • Here is a GBT spectrum of the remarkable maser in NGC 5765b:


Team Members

  • Jim Braatz (NRAO)
  • Jim Condon (NRAO)
  • Anca Constantin (JMU)
  • Feng Gao (SHAO)
  • Jenny Greene (Princeton)
  • Lei Hao (SHAO)
  • Christian Henkel (MPIfR)
  • Violetta Impellizzeri (NRAO/JAO)
  • Cheng-Yu Kuo (NSYSU)
  • Eugenia Litzinger (Wurzburg)
  • Fred Lo (NRAO)
  • Dom Pesce (UVa)
  • Mark Reid (CfA)
  • Jan Wagner (KIAA)
  • Wei Zhao (SHAO)

Project Description

Results

Internal Resources

-- JimBraatz
Edit  | Attach | Print version | History: r59 < r58 < r57 < r56 | Backlinks | View wiki text | Edit wiki text | More topic actions
Topic revision: r59 - 2020-06-15, JimBraatz
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding NRAO Public Wiki? Send feedback