Astrometry activities with the Mizusawa VLBI observatory, Japan

摘要

The Mizusawa VLBI observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory, Japan has currently been making astrometry observations on stars in the Milky Galaxy by using a VLBI network formed by four 20-m radio telescopes deployed over Japanese islands (VERA). The annual parallax measured with the VLBI array makes clear the distance to the star, which is essentially important to know the absolute mass of the star. The distance and the infinitesimal motion on the sky are also important to elucidate the galaxy dynamics and the structure. I will report the recent scientific results and new astrophysical discoveries made by VERA.