Trigonometric parallax of O-rich Mira variable star OZ Gem (IRAS 07308+3037): A confirmation of the difference between the P–L relations of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way.

OZ Geminorum (OZ Gem) is a galactic Mira variable in the Milky Way (MW). We measured its annual parallax with VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry to be π = 0.806 ± 0.039 mas, corresponding to a distance of D = 1.24 ± 0.06 kpc. Based on multi-epoch infrared observations with the Kagoshima University 1 m telescope, we also derived the mean J -, H -, and K ′-band magnitudes of OZ Gem to be 5.75 ± 0.47 mag, 4.00 ± 0.16 mag, and 2.65 ± 0.16 mag, respectively. We derived a pulsation period of OZ Gem as 592 ± 1 d from the K ′-band lightcurve. From the period–luminosity (P–L) relation and two-color diagram of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the property of OZ Gem suggests that OZ Gem is assigned among the carbon-rich Mira variables. However, our optical spectroscopic observational results (with the 1.5 m Kanata telescope) confirmed OZ Gem to be an oxygen-rich Mira star with the detection of multiple titanium oxide transition absorption lines. We suggest that OZ Gem is a low-mass star evolving to an OH/IR star with large mass loss and dust formation. It is predicted that the lower limit to the initial mass of AGB stars for developing the C-rich surface chemistry is larger in the MW than in the LMC because of larger metallicity, and OZ Gem is likely to be the first example to prove this. Our results highlight the necessity of deriving the PL relation of the Milky Way with high accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]