Southern Hemisphere VLBI Observations of the Expansion of GRO J1655–40

We present high-resolution radio observations of the second Galactic superluminal radio source GRO1655-40, which was detected as an X-ray transient on 1994 July 27. Our radio radio images reveal two components moving away from each other at an angular speed of 65±5 mas/day, corresponding to superluminal motion ( υ/c = 1.4 ± 0.4) at the estimated distance of 3–5 kpc. The 12-day delay between the X-ray and radio outbursts suggests that the ejection of material at relativistic speeds occurs during a stable phase of accretion onto a black hole, which follows an unstable phase with a high accretion rate. A complete description and discussion of these observations can be found in Tingay et al 1995 (Nature, 374 , pp 141–143).