Sagittarius_A*_cluster

Sagittarius A* cluster

Sagittarius A* cluster

Star cluster orbiting Sagittarius A*


The Sagittarius A* cluster is the cluster of stars in close orbit around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way (in the Galactic Center). The individual stars are often listed as "S-stars", but their names and IDs are not formalized, and stars can have different numbers in different catalogues.

Inferred orbits of 6 stars around supermassive black hole candidate Sagittarius A* at the Milky Way's center[1]

One of the most studied stars is S2, a relatively bright star that also passes close by Sgr A*.

As of 2020, S4714 is the current record holder of closest approach to Sagittarius A*, at about 12.6 astronomical units (1.88×109 km), almost as close as Saturn gets to the Sun, traveling at about 8% of the speed of light. These figures given are approximate, the formal uncertainties being 12.6±9.3 au and 23928±8840 km/s. Its orbital period is 12 years, but an extreme eccentricity of 0.985 gives it the close approach and high velocity.[2]

List of stars

The inferred orbits of stars around supermassive black hole candidate Sagittarius A* at the Milky Way's center are according to Gillessen et al. 2017,[3] with the exception of S2 which is from GRAVITY 2019,[4] S62 which is from Peißker et al. Jan 2020,[5] and S4711 up to S4715, which are also from Peißker et al., Aug 2020.[2]

Here id1 is the star's name in the Gillessen catalog and id2 in the catalog of the University of California, Los Angeles. a, e, i, Ω and ω are standard orbital elements, with a measured in arcseconds. Tp is the epoch of pericenter passage, P is the orbital period in years and Kmag is the K-band apparent magnitude of the star. q and v are the pericenter distance in AU and pericenter speed in percent of the speed of light,[6] and Δ indicates the standard deviation of the associated quantities.

More information id1, id2 ...

References

  1. Eisenhauer, F.; et al. (July 20, 2005). "SINFONI in the Galactic Center: Young Stars and Infrared Flares in the Central Light-Month". The Astrophysical Journal. 628 (1): 246–259. arXiv:astro-ph/0502129. Bibcode:2005ApJ...628..246E. doi:10.1086/430667. S2CID 122485461.
  2. Abuter, R.; Amorim, A.; Bauböck, M.; Berger, J. P.; Bonnet, H.; Brandner, W.; Clénet, Y.; Coudé Du Foresto, V.; De Zeeuw, P. T.; Dexter, J.; Duvert, G.; Eckart, A.; Eisenhauer, F.; Förster Schreiber, N. M.; Garcia, P.; Gao, F.; Gendron, E.; Genzel, R.; Gerhard, O.; Gillessen, S.; Habibi, M.; Haubois, X.; Henning, T.; Hippler, S.; Horrobin, M.; Jiménez-Rosales, A.; Jocou, L.; Kervella, P.; Lacour, S.; et al. (April 2019). "A geometric distance measurement to the Galactic center black hole with 0.3% uncertainty". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 625: L10. arXiv:1904.05721. Bibcode:2019A&A...625L..10G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201935656. S2CID 119190574.

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