The accelerations of stars orbiting the Milky Way's central black hole

被引：319

作者：

Ghez, AM ^{[1
]}

Morris, M ^{[1
]}

Becklin, EE ^{[1
]}

Tanner, A ^{[1
]}

Kremenek, T ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Phys & Astron, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA

来源：

NATURE | 2000年 / 407卷 / 6802期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1038/35030032

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Recent measurements(1-4) of the velocities of stars near the centre of the Milky Way have provided the strongest evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole in a galaxy(5), but the observational uncertainties poorly constrain many of the black hole's properties. Determining the accelerations of stars in their orbits around the centre provides much more precise information about the position and mass of the black hole. Here we report measurements of the accelerations of three stars located similar to 0.005 pc (projected on the sky) from the central radio source Sagittarius A(star) (Sgr A(star)); these accelerations are comparable to those experienced by the Earth as it orbits the Sun. These data increase the inferred minimum mass density in the central region of the Galaxy by an order of magnitude relative to previous results, and localize the dark mass to within 0.05 +/- 0.04 arcsec of the nominal position of Sgr A(star). In addition, the orbital period of one of the observed stars could be as short as 15 years, allowing us the opportunity in the near future to observe an entire period.

引用

页码：349 / 351

页数：3