Recently, Dr. Jumei Yao at Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory has gained achievements on the analysis of the z-distribution of young pulsars and the calculation for the Sun’s offset from the Galactic plane on the basis of both the model distances and model-independent distances of young pulsars. The results are published in the <Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society> （MNRAS , 2017, 468, 3289）

The Sun is offset from the local mean Galactic plane towards the North Galactic Pole. In the earlier research, Sun’s offset is often obtained by fitting a function to the observed z-distribution of H II regions, OB stars and open clusters. Based on pulsar distances, including model distances (estimated by NE2001 and YMW16) and model independent distances, the z-distribution of young pulsars can be used to analyze the scale height (H) of the young pulsars and to estimate Sun’s offset from the local mean Galactic plane.

This work was supported by Prof. R. N. Manchester from Australian Astronomical Observatory and Dr. Na Wang from Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory.

Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx729

Results of fitting for the scale height of young pulsars and Sun’s offset