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VLBI fringes demonstrated with phased-up MeerKAT

Submitted by evlbi_beheer on Wed, 09/13/2023 - 10:14

by: Marcel Gouws (SARAO, South Africa) and Marjolein Verkouter (JIVE, The Netherlands)

MeerKAT is an SKA precursor telescope consisting of 64 dishes distributed across 8 kilometers within the Northern Cape region of South Africa. MeerKAT has accumulated an impressive scientific output since its inauguration in 2018, and adding the capability to operate it as a VLBI station has remained a long-standing goal.

A Keplerian disk with a four-arm spiral birthing an episodically accreting high-mass protostar

Submitted by evlbi_beheer on Wed, 09/13/2023 - 09:16

Methanol masers at 6.7 GHz have been frequently targeted by VLBI users for their bright emission and multiple uses in radio astronomy. In addition to their uses in trigonometric annual parallax measurements, it is their reliable and exclusive association with intermediate- and high-mass protostars which make them a favourite maser transition among star formation astronomers investigating the higher mass regimes. VLBI images of the 6.7 GHz methanol maser often show rings of up to 100s of AU around protostars, or arcs of maser clouds, or seemingly random distributions.