- #1
leonne
- 191
- 0
Homework Statement
New observations of the stars orbiting the black hole at the Galactic Center (Sgr
A*) have improved the measurements. Here are the latest results from Gillessen et
al. (2009) for star S0-2: period P = 15:8 yr, semimajor axis a = 1025 AU, and
eccentricity e = 0:880; and for star S0-16: P = 47:3 yr, a = 2130 AU, and e = 0:963.
(a) Compute the mass (in units of solar masses) of Sgr A* implied by the new results.
Do the two stars give a consistent answer?
Homework Equations
M=(4pie^2 a^3)/Gp^2
The Attempt at a Solution
For s0-2 i first converted AU to cm and years to seconds then 4pie^2(1.53e16)^3 /(6.6743e-8)(498599430)^2
and got 8.52e16 grams then 4284399 Mo is this correct the formula i used to find mass of the black hole?