An Update on Monitoring Stellar Orbits in the Galactic Center

2016/11/28 by S. Gillessen, Stefan Gillessen, P. M. Plewa +21 · 487 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrometry #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Center of mass (relativistic) #Circular orbit #Galactic Center #Milky Way #Orbit (dynamics) #Satellite #Star (game theory) #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa5c41

published in The Astrophysical Journal 837(1), 30 (IOP Publishing) · submitted to ApJ, 19 pages, 14 figures

arxiv created 2016/11/28 · openalex created_date 2016/12/08 · openalex publication_date 2017/02/28 · arxiv updated 2017/03/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Using 25 years of data from uninterrupted monitoring of stellar orbits in the Galactic Center, we present an update of the main results from this unique data set: A measurement of mass of and distance to SgrA*. Our progress is not only due to the eight year increase in time base, but also due to the improved definition of the coordinate system. The star S2 continues to yield the best constraints on the mass of and distance to SgrA*; the statistical errors of 0.13 x 10⁶ M_sun and 0.12 kpc have halved compared to the previous study. The S2 orbit fit is robust and does not need any prior information. Using coordinate system priors, also the star S1 yields tight constraints on mass and distance. For a combined orbit fit, we use 17 stars, which yields our current best estimates for mass and distance: M = 4.28 +/- 0.10|stat. +/. 0.21|sys. x 10⁶ M_sun and R₀ = 8.32 +/- 0.07|stat. +/- 0.14|sys. kpc. These numbers are in agreement with the recent determination of R₀ from the statistical cluster parallax. The positions of the mass, of the near-infrared flares from SgrA* and of the radio source SgrA* agree to within 1mas. In total, we have determined orbits for 40 stars so far, a sample which consists of 32 stars with randomly oriented orbits and a thermal eccentricity distribution, plus eight stars for which we can explicitly show that they are members of the clockwise disk of young stars, and which have lower eccentricity orbits.

Citations

• SINFONI in the Galactic Center: Young Stars and Infrared Flares in the Central Light‐Month

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• The former companion of hyper-velocity star S5-HVS1
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• Near-infrared spectroscopic observations of massive young stellar object candidates in the central molecular zone
• Forming Circumnuclear Disks and Rings in Galactic Nuclei: A Competition Between Supermassive Black Hole and Nuclear Star Cluster
• Testing the black hole no-hair theorem with Galactic Center stellar orbits
• Fermionic Dark Matter: Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
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• GRay2: A General Purpose Geodesic Integrator for Kerr Spacetimes
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• Post-Keplerian effects on radial velocity in binary systems and the possibility of measuring General Relativity with the star S2 in 2018
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• Sagittarius A* [wikipedia]
• Modified gravity revealed along geodesic tracks. [europepmc]
• Investigating the nature of mass distribution surrounding the Galactic supermassive black hole. [europepmc]
• Fast-moving stars around an intermediate-mass black hole in ω Centauri. [europepmc]
• A binary system in the S cluster close to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A. [europepmc]

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