Direct Distance Measurement to the Dusty White Dwarf GD 362

We present trigonometric parallax observations of GD 362 obtained over seven epochs using the MDM 2.4 m Hiltner Telescope. The existence of a dust disk around this possibly massive white dwarf makes it an interesting target for parallax observations. The measured parallax for GD 362 places it at a distance of 50.6−3.1+3.5 pc, which implies that its radius and mass are ≈0.0106 R☉ and 0.71 M☉, respectively. GD 362 is not as massive as initially thought (1.2 M☉). Our results are entirely consistent with the distance and mass estimates (52.2 pc and 0.73 M☉) by Zuckerman et al., who demonstrated that GD 362 has a helium-dominated atmosphere. Dropping GD 362 from the list of massive white dwarfs, there are no white dwarfs with M > 0.9 M☉ that are known to host circumstellar dust disks.