With the new Hipparcos data recently released, we reexamine the kinematics in the solar neighborhood. Two different populations of objects, namely the thin-disk O-B5 stars and the thick-disk K-M giants, are selected for tracing the kinematical parameters of the Galaxy. Using a 3-D kinematical model, the components of the solar motion and the Oort constants are derived. The solutions and the kinematics inferred from both types of stars are analyzed. The results obtained with the new data are compared with those from the old Hipparcos data. We conclude that the present solution provides a more reliable estimation of the Oort constants, thanks to the new reduction of the Hipparcos data that provides even more accurate astrometric measurements of stars.
Revised Hipparcos data were released by van Leeuwen in 2007.In this article revised Hipparcos trigo-nometrical parallaxes are used to derive a period-luminosity zero-point in the optical V band.Adopting a fixed slope of -2.81 from the LMC,a zero-point value of ρ= -1.37±0.07 is derived based on the method by Feast and Catchpole(1997).This value yields an LMC distance modulus of 18.64 mag,which makes a minor change in H0 expected from Feast and Catchpole's result in 1997.
On the basis of recently published astrophysical parameters of the open clusters, we have selected 301 clusters with measurements of their kinematical parameters to trace the local structure and kinematics of the Galactic disk. The present sample covers a range of over 3.0 kpc from the Sun and gives significant estimates of the disk structure and kinematical parameters of the Galaxy. We derive the disk scale height, vertical displacement of the Sun to the Galactic plane, solar motion with respect to the local standard of rest, circular speed of the Galactic rotation, Galactocentric distance from the Sun, etc. We found that the average scale height of the disk defined by the open clusters is Zh = 58 ± 4pc, with a vertical displacement of the Sun below the Galactic plane of z0 -= - 16±4 pc. Clusters with ages older than 50 Myr are less concentrated in the average plane （Zh=67 ±6pc） than the younger clusters （Zh = 51±5pc）. Using the approximation of axisymmetric circular rotation, we have derived the distance to the Galactic center from the Sun R0 = 8.03 ±0.70 kpc, which is in excellent agreement with the best estimate of the Galactocentric distance. From a kinematical analysis, we found an agedependent rotation of the Galaxy. The older clusters exhibit a lower velocity of vorticity, but have the same shear as the younger clusters. The mean rotation velocity of the Galaxy was obtained as 235 ± 10 km s-1.
