TY - JOUR
KW - Space and Planetary Science
KW - Astronomy and Astrophysics
AU - R. Abuter
AU - A. Amorim
AU - M. Bauböck
AU - J. Berger
AU - H. Bonnet
AU - W. Brandner
AU - Y. Clenet
AU - Coudé Foresto
AU - P. de Zeeuw
AU - Jason Dexter
AU - G. Duvert
AU - A. Eckart
AU - F. Eisenhauer
AU - N. Schreiber
AU - P. Garcia
AU - F. Gao
AU - E. Gendron
AU - R. Genzel
AU - O. Gerhard
AU - S. Gillessen
AU - M. Habibi
AU - X. Haubois
AU - T. Henning
AU - S. Hippler
AU - M. Horrobin
AU - Alejandra Jimenez-Rosales
AU - L. Jocou
AU - P. Kervella
AU - S. Lacour
AU - V. Lapeyrère
AU - J.-B. Le Bouquin
AU - P. Léna
AU - T. Ott
AU - T. Paumard
AU - K. Perraut
AU - G. Perrin
AU - O. Pfuhl
AU - S. Rabien
AU - Rodriguez Coira
AU - G. Rousset
AU - S. Scheithauer
AU - A. Sternberg
AU - O. Straub
AU - C. Straubmeier
AU - E. Sturm
AU - L. Tacconi
AU - F. Vincent
AU - S. von Fellenberg
AU - I. Waisberg
AU - F. Widmann
AU - E. Wieprecht
AU - E. Wiezorrek
AU - J. Woillez
AU - S. Yazici
AB - We present a 0.16% precise and 0.27% accurate determination of R-0, the distance to the Galactic center. Our measurement uses the star S2 on its 16-year orbit around the massive black hole Sgr A* that we followed astrometrically and spectroscopically for 27 years. Since 2017, we added near-infrared interferometry with the VLTI beam combiner GRAVITY, yielding a direct measurement of the separation vector between S2 and Sgr A* with an accuracy as good as 20 mu as in the best cases. S2 passed the pericenter of its highly eccentric orbit in May 2018, and we followed the passage with dense sampling throughout the year. Together with our spectroscopy, in the best cases with an error of 7 km s(-1), this yields a geometric distance estimate of R-0 = 8178 +/- 13(stat.) +/- 22(sys.) pc. This work updates our previous publication, in which we reported the first detection of the gravitational redshift in the S2 data. The redshift term is now detected with a significance level of 20 sigma with f(redshift) = 1.04 +/- 0.05.
BT - Astronomy & Astrophysics
DA - 2020-05
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201935656
N2 - We present a 0.16% precise and 0.27% accurate determination of R-0, the distance to the Galactic center. Our measurement uses the star S2 on its 16-year orbit around the massive black hole Sgr A* that we followed astrometrically and spectroscopically for 27 years. Since 2017, we added near-infrared interferometry with the VLTI beam combiner GRAVITY, yielding a direct measurement of the separation vector between S2 and Sgr A* with an accuracy as good as 20 mu as in the best cases. S2 passed the pericenter of its highly eccentric orbit in May 2018, and we followed the passage with dense sampling throughout the year. Together with our spectroscopy, in the best cases with an error of 7 km s(-1), this yields a geometric distance estimate of R-0 = 8178 +/- 13(stat.) +/- 22(sys.) pc. This work updates our previous publication, in which we reported the first detection of the gravitational redshift in the S2 data. The redshift term is now detected with a significance level of 20 sigma with f(redshift) = 1.04 +/- 0.05.
PB - EDP Sciences
PY - 2019
EP - L10
T2 - Astronomy & Astrophysics
TI - A geometric distance measurement to the Galactic center black hole with 0.3% uncertainty
VL - 625
SN - 0004-6361, 1432-0746
ER -