The canonical Luminous Blue Variable AG Car and its neighbor Hen 3-519 are much closer than previously assumed

Understand

The strong mass loss of Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) is thought to play a critical role in massive-star evolution, but their place in the evolutionary sequence remains debated.

• A key to understanding their peculiar instability is their high observed luminosities, which often depends on uncertain distances.
• Here we report direct distances and space motions of four canonical Milky Way LBVs---AG~Car, HR~Car, HD~168607, and (candidate) Hen~3-519---from the Gaia first data release.
• Whereas the distances of HR~Car and HD~168607 are consistent with previous literature estimates within the considerable uncertainties, Hen~3-519 and AG~Car, both at $\sim$2~kpc, are much closer than the 6--8~kpc distances previously assumed.