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Progress in VLBI Stellar Astrometry for the NASA/Stanford Relativity Mission (Gravity Probe B)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

M. I. Ratner ,
D. E. Lebach ,
I. I. Shapiro ,
N. Bartel ,
M. F. Bietenholz ,
R. R. Ransom  and
J.-F. Lestrade
M. I. Ratner
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
D. E. Lebach
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
I. I. Shapiro
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
N. Bartel
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, York University, North York, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
M. F. Bietenholz
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, York University, North York, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
R. R. Ransom
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, York University, North York, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
J.-F. Lestrade
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Meudon, F-92195 Meudon, Principal Cedex, France

Abstract

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The NASA/Stanford Relativity Mission (Gravity Probe B) is to test the unverified “frame-dragging” prediction of general relativity through measurements of the precessions of orbiting gyroscopes. For mission accuracy goals to be met, the proper motion of a “guide star,” whose position will be used as an inertial reference, must be determined in an extragalactic reference frame with a standard error less than 0.5 mas/yr. We discuss our VLBI observations of the current guide-star candidates (radio stars HR 1099, HR 5110, and HR 8703) and our techniques for obtaining differential astrometric positions with the needed accuracy.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 164: Radio Emission from Galactic and Extragalactic Compact Sources , 1998 , pp. 385 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1998

References

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