A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center

Details A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center

2003-06-11

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0306220v1

Astrophys.J. 597 (2003) L121-L124

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJL, May 27th, 2003

Scientific paper

10.1086/380188

We report new astrometric and spectroscopic observations of the star S2 orbiting the massive black hole in the Galactic Center, which 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 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 Ro = 8.0 +/- 0.4 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 Ro.

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