M. J. Reid, K. M. Menten, X. W. Zheng, A. Brunthaler, Y. Xu
Published 2009-08-25, updated 2009-08-26Version 2
We have measured the positions of water masers in Sgr B2, a massive star forming region in the Galactic center, relative to an extragalactic radio source with the Very Long Baseline Array. The positions measured at 12 epochs over a time span of one year yield the trigonometric parallax of Sgr B2 and hence a distance to the Galactic center of Ro=7.9 (+0.8/-0.7) kpc. The proper motion of Sgr B2 relative to Sgr A* suggests that Sgr B2 is about 0.13 kpc nearer than the Galactic center, assuming a low-eccentricity Galactic orbit.
Comments: Submitted to ApJ; 4 tables; 3 figures. Version 2 corrects Fig. 2 which was missing some data
The Distribution of Stars and Stellar Remnants at the Galactic Center
The Galactic Center: A Laboratory for Fundamental Astrophysics and Galactic Nuclei
Tidal break-up of binary stars at the Galactic center and its consequences
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