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

Nature

Volumn 419, Issue 6908, 2002, Pages 694-696

  Schodel R ^a   Ott, T ^a   Genzel, R ^a   Hofmann, R ^a   Lehnert, M ^a   Eckart, A ^a   Mouawad, N ^a   Alexander, T ^a   Reid, M J ^a   Lenzen, R ^a   Hartung, M ^a   Lacombe, F ^a   Rouan, D ^a   Gendron, E ^a   Rousset, G ^a   Lagrange, A M ^a   Brandner, W ^a   Ageorges, N ^a   Lidman, C ^a   Moorwood, A F M ^a   Spyromilio, J ^a   Hubin, N ^a   Menten, K M ^a   more..

^a MAX PLANCK INSTITUT FÜR EXTRATERRESTRISCHE PHYSIK   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GALAXIES; IMAGING TECHNIQUES; ORBITS; SUN;

BLACK HOLES; X RAY EMISSIONS;

ASTRONOMY;

ASTRONOMY; ORBIT DETERMINATION;

ARTICLE; ASTRONOMY; DENSITY; INFRARED RADIATION; INTERFEROMETRY; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SOLAR ENERGY;

SAGITTARIUS;

EID: 0037126315     PISSN: 00280836     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/nature01121     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Kormendy, J. & Richstone, D. Inward bound-The search for supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 33, 581-624 (1995).
2. Eckart, A. & Genzel, R. Observations of stellar proper motions near the Galactic Centre. Nature 383, 415-417 (1996).
3. Genzel, T., Eckart, A., Ott, T. & Eisenhauer, F. On the nature of the dark mass in the centre of the Milky Way. Mon. Not. R. Soc. 291, 219-234 (1997).
4. Ghez, A., Klein, B. L., Morris, M. & Becklin, E. E. High proper-motion stars in the vicinity of Sagittarius A: Evidence for a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Astrophys. J. 509, 678-686 (1998).
5. Genzel, R., Pichon, C., Eckart, A., Gerhard, O. & Ott, T. Stellar dynamics in the Galactic Centre: proper motions and anisotropy. Mon. Not. R. Soc. 317, 348-374 (2000).
6. Ghez, A., Morris, M., Becklin, E. E., Tanner, A. & Kremenek, T. The accelerations of stars orbiting the Milky Way's central black hole. Nature 407, 349-351 (2000).
7. Eckart, A., Genzel, R., Ott, T. & Schödel, R. Stellar orbits near Sagittarius A*. Mon. Not. R. Soc. 331, 917-934 (2002).
8. Baganoff, F. K. et al. Rapid X-ray flaring from the direction of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre. Nature 413, 45-48 (2001).
9. Backer, D. C. & Sramek, R. A. Proper motion of the compact, nonthermal radio source in the Galactic Center, Sagittarius A*. Astrophys. J. 524, 805-815 (1999).
10. Reid, M. J., Readhead, A. C. S., Vermeulen, R. C. & Treuhaft, R. The proper motion of Sagittarius A*. I. First VLBA results. Astrophys. J. 524, 816-823 (1999).
11. Lenzen, R., Hofmann, R., Bizenberger, P. & Tusche, A. CONICA: the high-resolution near-infrared camera for the ESO VLT. Proc. SPIE IR Astron. Instrum. (ed. Fowler, A. M.) 3354, 606-614 (1998).
12. Rousset, G. et al. Design of the Nasmyth adaptive optics system (NAOS) of the VLT. Proc SPIE Adapt. Opt. Technol. (eds Bonaccini, O. & Tyson, R. K.) 3353, 508-516 (1998).
13. Brandner, W. et al. NAOS + CONICA at YEPUN: First VLT adaptive optics system sees first light. ESO Mess. 107, 1-6 (2002).
14. Menten, K. M., Reid, M. J., Eckart, A. & Genzel, R. The position of Sagittarius A*: Accurate alignment of the radio and infrared reference frames at the Galactic Center. R. Astrophys. J. 475, L112-L115 (1997).
15. 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).
16. Maoz, E. Dynamical constraints on alternatives to supermassive black holes in Galactic Nuclei. Astrophys. J. 494, L181-L184 (1998).
17. Tsiklauri, D. & Viollier, R. D. Dark matter concentration in the Galactic Center. Astrophys. J. 500, 591-595 (1998).
18. Munyaneza, F. & Viollier, R. D. The motion of stars near the Galactic Center: A comparison of the black hole and fermion ball scenarios. Astrophys. J. 564, 274-283 (2002).
19. Torres, D. F., Capozziello, S. & Liambase, G. Supermassive boson star at the galactic centre? Phys. Rev. D62, 104012 (2000).
20. Rubilar, G. T. & Eckart, A. Periastron shifts of stellar orbits near the Galactic center. Astron. Astrophys. 374, 95-104 (2001).
21. Reid, M. J. The distance to the center of the Galaxy. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 345-372 (1993).
22. Chakrabarty, D. & Saha, P. A non-parametric estimate of the mass of the central black hole in the Galaxy. Astron. J. 122, 232-241 (2001).
23. Reid, M. J. et al. The position of Sagittarius A*: II. Accurate positions and proper motions of stellar SiO masers at the Galactic Center. Astrophys. J. (submitted).