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Cited by 1,166Astrophysical Phenomena and ObservationsStellar, planetary, and galactic studiesGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 25 of the 25 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

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Schödel, R., Ott, T., Genzel, R., Hofmann, R., Lehnert, M., Eckart, A., Mouawad, N., Alexander, T., Reid, M. J., Lenzen, R., Hartung, M., Lacombe, F., Rouan, D., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Lagrange, A.-M., Brandner, W., Ageorges, N., Lidman, C., Moorwood, A. F. M., Spyromilio, J., Hubin, N., Menten, K. M.·2002·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature01121
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Abstract

Many galaxies are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centres-more than a million times the mass of the Sun. Measurements of stellar velocities and the discovery of variable X-ray emission have provided strong evidence in favour of such a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, but have hitherto been unable to rule out conclusively the presence of alternative concentrations of mass. Here we report ten years of high-resolution astrometric imaging that allows us to trace two-thirds of the orbit of the star currently closest to the compact radio source (and massive black-hole candidate) Sagittarius A*. The observations, which include both pericentre and apocentre passages, show that the star is on a bound, highly elliptical keplerian orbit around Sgr A*, with an orbital period of 15.2 years and a pericentre distance of only 17 light hours. The orbit with the best fit to the observations requires a central point mass of (3.7 +/- 1.5) x 10(6) solar masses (M(*)). The data no longer allow for a central mass composed of a dense cluster of dark stellar objects or a ball of massive, degenerate fermions.

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  1. Gudehus, D. H. A multiple-star combined solution program — Application to the population II binary µ Cas. Am. Astron. Soc. Meeting 198, 1–13 (2001)

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Metadata

Authors
Schödel, R., Ott, T., Genzel, R., Hofmann, R., Lehnert, M., Eckart, A., Mouawad, N., Alexander, T., Reid, M. J., Lenzen, R., Hartung, M., Lacombe, F., Rouan, D., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Lagrange, A.-M., Brandner, W., Ageorges, N., Lidman, C., Moorwood, A. F. M., Spyromilio, J., Hubin, N., & Menten, K. M.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
  • University of Cologne (DE)
  • Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
  • Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE)
  • Observatoire de Paris (FR)
  • Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales (FR)
  • European Southern Observatory (DE)
  • Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
Corresponding author
Schödel, R.
ORCID
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2002-10
Volume
419
Issue
6908
Pages
694-696
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature01121
OpenAlex
W2001876144
Cited by
1,166
References
25
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 121 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 38 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 49
FWCI
46.71
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (acceptedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
European Southern Observatory
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Keywords
Sgr A*, supermassive black holes, S2 star, stellar orbits, astrometry, Galactic Center, Keplerian orbits, central mass concentration

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