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Paper: Light Echo Polarization for Geometric Distance Measurement
Volume: 449, Astronomical Polarimetry 2008: Science from Small to Large Telescopes
Page: 242
Authors: Sparks, W. B.; Bond, H.
Abstract: Sparks (1994) showed that the polarization of a light echo can be used to measure its distance geometrically. We applied this concept to the famous light echo of V838 Mon and derived a distance of 6.1 kpc. This distance has been independently verified using main sequence fitting for an associated young star cluster. The Cepheid variable star RS Pup lies within a dust cloud and light echoes continuously propagate outward from the star. An attempt to measure its distance geometrically by Kervella et al. (2008) was invalid since they assumed scatterers are in the plane of the sky. Polarization observations, however, should allow us to identify features that are close to the plane of the sky and hence we should be able to derive a geometric distance.
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