Results of VLBI Observations of Radio Stars and Their Potential for Linking the HIPPARCOS and Extragalactic Reference Frames

Abstract

VLBI observations of bright radio stars have been initiated in an attempt to measure the positions and proper motions of their radio components in order to tie the future HIPPARCOS stellar frame to a VLBI extragalactic reference frame. Through VLBI observations of a sample of 20 known radio stars we have identified 11 stars that should be appropriate for both astrometric VLBI and HIPPARCOS observations. Our measurements indicate that the angular extent of their radio emitting regions is small, i.e. < 3 milliarcseconds for 7 of them. Most of these radio stars belong to the RS Canum Venaticorum class of binary systems.