Abstract
Two disks of young stars have recently been discovered in the Galactic center. The disks are rotating in the gravitational field of the central black hole at radii r a?? 0.1-0.3 pc and thus open a new opportunity to measure the central mass. We find that the observed motion of stars in the clockwise disk implies the mass within -0.1 pc M = (4.3 A? 0.5) ?? 106 MaS? for the fiducial distance to the Galactic center R 0 = 8 kpc, and we derive the scaling of M with R0. As a tool for our estimate we use orbital roulette, a recently developed method. The method reconstructs the three-dimensional orbits of the disk stars and checks the randomness of their orbital phases. We also estimate the three-dimensional positions and orbital eccentricities of the clockwise-disk stars.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 405 - 410 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | The Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 648 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2006 |
Externally published | Yes |