Journal ArticleA compendium of distances to molecular clouds in the Star Formation HandbookZucker, Catherine; Speagle, Joshua S.; Schlafly, Edward F.; Green, Gregory M.; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.; Goodman, Alyssa; Alves, JoãoAccurate distances to local molecular clouds are critical for understanding the star and planet formation process, yet distance measurements are often obtained inhomogeneously on a cloud-by-cloud basis. We have recently developed a method that combines stellar photometric data with Gaia DR2 parallax measurements in a Bayesian framework to infer the distances of nearby dust clouds to a typical accuracy of ∼5%. After refining the technique to target lower latitudes and incorporating deep optical data from DECam in the southern Galactic plane, we have derived a catalog of distances to molecular clouds in Reipurth (2008, Star Formation Handbook, Vols. I and II) which contains a large fraction of the molecular material in the solar neighborhood. Comparison with distances derived from maser parallax measurements towards the same clouds shows our method produces consistent distances with ≲10% scatter for clouds across our entire distance spectrum (150 pc−2.5 kpc). We hope this catalog of homogeneous distances will serve as a baseline for future work.2020-01-0110189725Astronomy & Astrophysics633A510004-6361https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/2019361451908419; 1739657National Science Foundation