VOOZH about

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01121?error=cookies_not_supported&code=baca43bc-f48c-4df7-bba6-63731861e168

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

Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Abstract

Many galaxies are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centres1—more than a million times the mass of the Sun. Measurements of stellar velocities2,3,4,5,6,7 and the discovery of variable X-ray emission8 have provided strong evidence in favour of such a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, but have hitherto been unable to rule out conclusively the presence of alternative concentrations of mass. Here we report ten years of high-resolution astrometric imaging that allows us to trace two-thirds of the orbit of the star currently closest to the compact radio source (and massive black-hole candidate) Sagittarius A*. The observations, which include both pericentre and apocentre passages, show that the star is on a bound, highly elliptical keplerian orbit around Sgr A*, with an orbital period of 15.2 years and a pericentre distance of only 17 light hours. The orbit with the best fit to the observations requires a central point mass of (3.7 ± 1.5) × 106 solar masses (M⊙). The data no longer allow for a central mass composed of a dense cluster of dark stellar objects or a ball of massive, degenerate fermions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

$199.00 per year

only $3.90 per issue

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Ks-band image of the centre of the Milky Way.
Figure 2: Orbit of S2 around SgrA*.
Figure 3: Mass distribution in the Galactic Centre.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kormendy, J. & Richstone, D. Inward bound—The search for supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 33, 581–624 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Eckart, A. & Genzel, R. Observations of stellar proper motions near the Galactic Centre. Nature 383, 415–417 (1996)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Eckart, A., Genzel, R., Ott, T. & Schödel, R. Stellar orbits near Sagittarius A*. Mon. Not. R. Soc. 331, 917–934 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  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, L111–L115 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Maoz, E. Dynamical constraints on alternatives to supermassive black holes in Galactic Nuclei. Astrophys. J. 494, L181–L184 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Tsiklauri, D. & Viollier, R. D. Dark matter concentration in the Galactic Center. Astrophys. J. 500, 591–595 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Torres, D. F., Capozziello, S. & Liambase, G. Supermassive boson star at the galactic centre? Phys. Rev. D 62, 104012 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Rubilar, G. T. & Eckart, A. Periastron shifts of stellar orbits near the Galactic center. Astron. Astrophys. 374, 95–104 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Reid, M. J. The distance to the center of the Galaxy. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 345–372 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  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)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  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)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the teams who developed and constructed the near-infrared camera CONICA and the adaptive optics system NAOS. We are grateful to all the instrument scientists and European Southern Observatory staff involved in the commissioning of NAOS/CONICA for observations of the Galactic Centre. We thank C.H. Townes and J. Kormendy for comments. We thank D. Gudehus for assistance with the Binary-Star Combined Solution Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748, Garching, Germany

    R. Schödel, T. Ott, R. Genzel, R. Hofmann & M. Lehnert

  2. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    R. Genzel

  3. I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Strasse 77, 50937, Köln, Germany

    A. Eckart & N. Mouawad

  4. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Faculty of Physics, PO Box 26, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    T. Alexander

  5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics MS42, 60 Garden St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    M. J. Reid

  6. Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany

    R. Lenzen & M. Hartung

  7. Observatoire de Paris - Section de Meudon, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92195, Meudon Cédex, France

    F. Lacombe, D. Rouan & E. Gendron

  8. Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales, BP 72, 92322, Chatillon cédex, France

    G. Rousset

  9. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Observatoire de Grenoble, BP 53, F-38041, Grenoble, cédex 9, France

    A.-M. Lagrange

  10. European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748, Garching, Germany

    W. Brandner, N. Ageorges, C. Lidman, A. F. M. Moorwood, J. Spyromilio & N. Hubin

  11. Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121, Bonn, Germany

    K. M. Menten

Authors
  1. R. Schödel
  2. T. Ott
  3. R. Genzel
  4. R. Hofmann
  5. M. Lehnert
  6. A. Eckart
  7. N. Mouawad
  8. T. Alexander
  9. M. J. Reid
  10. R. Lenzen
  11. M. Hartung
  12. F. Lacombe
  13. D. Rouan
  14. E. Gendron
  15. G. Rousset
  16. A.-M. Lagrange
  17. W. Brandner
  18. N. Ageorges
  19. C. Lidman
  20. A. F. M. Moorwood
  21. J. Spyromilio
  22. N. Hubin
  23. K. M. Menten

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Schödel.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

About this article

Cite this article

Schödel, R., Ott, T., Genzel, R. et al. A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Nature 419, 694–696 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01121

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01121

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

👁 Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing