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2.3. Distance to LMC

The present status of the LMC distance is given in TABLE 4. The most traditional paths to the LMC distance follow the ladder shown in the upper half of TABLE 2. The Hipparcos satellite can measure a parallax down to 2 milli arcsec (mas), corresponding to a distance of 500 pc (ESA 1997). It was a reasonable expectation that one could obtain the geometric distance to the Pleiades cluster, circumventing the main sequence fitting from nearby parallax stars to the Pleiades and thus securing the Galactic distance scale. Hipparcos observations have also opened a number of novel methods that can be used to estimate the distance to LMC. This and related activities, however, have actually brought confusions, rather than securing the distance scale within the MW. We discuss several issues in order.

Table 4. Distance to LMC: Year 1997/1998

Method Ref Distance moduli

Cepheid PL Feast & Catchpole 1997 18.70 ± 0.10
Paturel et al. 1997 18.7
Madore & Freedman 1998 18.57 ± 0.11
Luri et al. 1998 18.29 ± 0.17
Luri et al. 1998 18.21 ± 0.20
(traditional) w/ new Pleiades 18.26
RR Lyrae (stat. para) Fernley et al. 1998 18.31 ± 0.10
Luri et al. 1998 18.37 ± 0.23
Udalski 1998 / Gould et al. 1998 18.09 ± 0.16
RR Lyrae (subdwarf) Reid 1997 18.65
Gratton et al. 1997 18.60 ± 0.07
Mira van Leeuwen et al. 1997 18.54 ± 0.18
Whitelock et al. 1997 18.60 ± 0.18
Red clump Udalski et al. 1998a 18.08 ± 0.15
Stanek et al. 1998 18.07 ± 0.04
Cole 1998 18.36 ± 0.17
Eclipsing binaries Guinan et al. 1998 18.30 ± 0.07
(Udalski et al. 1998b) 18.19 ± 0.13(?)
SN 1987A Ring echo Gould & Uza 1998 < 18.37 ± 0.04
Sonneborn et al. 1997 18.43 ± 0.10
Panagia et al. 1997 18.58 ± 0.03
Lundqvist & Sonneborn 1997 18.67 ± 0.08
Cepheid PL Sekiguchi & Fukugita 1998 18.10-18.60
Sandage et al. 1999 18.57±0.05
Cepheid PL (BW method) Gieren et al. 1998 18.49 ± 0.05

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