A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center
Open accessAbstract
We report new astrometric and spectroscopic observations of the star S2 orbiting the massive black hole in the Galactic center that were taken at the ESO VLT with the adaptive optics-assisted, near-IR camera NAOS/CONICA and the near-IR integral field spectrometer SPIFFI. We use these data to determine all the orbital parameters of the star with high precision, including the Sun-Galactic center distance, which is a key parameter for calibrating stellar standard candles and an important rung in the extragalactic distance ladder. Our deduced value of R 0 = 7.94 ± 0.42 kpc is the most accurate primary distance measurement to the center of the Milky Way and has minimal systematic uncertainties of astrophysical origin. It is in excellent agreement with other recent determinations of R 0 .
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“5 kpc (Eisenhauer et al. 2003; Ghez et al. 2008; Gillessen et al. 2009; GRAVITY Collaboration et al. 2019).”
- Authors
- Eisenhauer, F., Schdel, R., Genzel, R., Ott, T., Tecza, M., Abuter, R., Eckart, A., & Alexander, T.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
- University of Cologne (DE)
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2003-10-24
- Volume
- 597
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- L121-L124
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W1966839961
- Cited by
- 354
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 19.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (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)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Keywords
- galactocentric distance, S2 star, Sgr A*, supermassive black holes, stellar orbits, orbital elements, astrometry, integral field spectroscopy, NAOS-CONICA
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