2012/02/28 by Zinovy Malkin, Malkin, Zinovy · 3 citations
Decision Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #Inertial Sensor and Navigation #Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty Evaluation #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1202.6128
arxiv created 2012/02/28 · openalex publication_date 2012/02/28 · arxiv updated 2012/02/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
In this paper, the current best estimate of a fundamental Galactic parameter Galactocentric distance of the Sun R0 has been evaluated using all the available estimates published during the last 20 years. Unlike some other studies, our analysis of these results showed no statistically significant trend in R0 during this period. However we revealed a statistically valuable improvement in the R0 uncertainties with time of about 0.2 kpc for 20 years. Several statistical techniques have been used and compared to obtain the most reliable common mean of 52 determinations made in 1992--2011 and its realistic uncertainty. The statistical methods used include unweighted mean, seven variants of the weighted mean, and two variants of median technique. The R0 estimates obtained with these methods range from 7.91 to 8.06 kpc with uncertainties varying from 0.05 to 0.08 kpc. The final value derived in this analysis is R0 = 7.98 ± 0.15 |stat ± 0.20 |syst kpc, which can be recommended as the current best estimate of the Galactocentric distance of the Sun. For most of the practical applications the value of R0 = 8.0 ± 0.25 kpc can be used.