Microarcsecond proper motions of extragalactic water vapor masers in M33

A second-epoch spectral line VLBI synthesis map of the H2O maser associated with the H II region IC 133 in the galaxy M33 is presented. Thirty-two spatially distinct maser features were identified, and a second center of maser activity within the IC 133 complex, IC 133 West, which is displaced about 0.3 arcsec from IC 133 Main, was discovered. A comparison of the two available maps of IC 133 is used to estimate the right ascension components of proper motion over a period of 479 d for five maser features to accuracies of between 7 and 16 micro-as. The dispersions in transverse and radial velocities for the maser features are consistent with the accepted distance to M33 of 720 kpc, where the data admit a fractional uncertainty in distance of 50 percent.