Cygnus X-3: Its Little Friend's Counterpart, the Distance to Cygnus X-3,
  and Outflows/Jets
  Chandra observations have revealed a feature,within 16" of Cygnus X-3 which
varied in phase with Cygnus X-3. This feature was shown to be a Bok globule
which is along the line of sight to Cygnus X-3. We report on observations made
with Submillimeter Array (SMA) to search for molecular emission from this
globule, also known as Cygnus X-3's "Little Friend" (LF). We have found a
counterpart in both 12CO (2-1) and 13}CO (2-1) emission. From the velocity
shift of the molecular lines, we are able to find two probable distances based
on the Bayesian model of Milky Way kinematics of Reid et al. 2016. For the LF
velocity of -47.5 km/s, we get a distance of 6.1 +/- 0.6 kpc (62% probability)
and 7.8 +/- 0.6 ~kpc (38% probability). This yields a distance to Cyg X-3 of
7.4 +/- 1.1 kpc and 10.2 +/-1.2 ~kpc, respectively. Based on the probabilities
entailed, we take 7.4 +/- 1.1 kpc as the preferred distance to Cyg X-3. We also
report the discovery of bipolar molecular outflow, suggesting that there is
active star formation occurring within the Little Friend.
