Relativistic redshift of the star S0-2 orbiting the Galactic Center supermassive black hole

T Do, A Hees, A Ghez, GD Martinez, DS Chu, S Jia…�- Science, 2019 - science.org
T Do, A Hees, A Ghez, GD Martinez, DS Chu, S Jia, S Sakai, JR Lu, AK Gautam, KK O'neil…
Science, 2019science.org
The general theory of relativity predicts that a star passing close to a supermassive black
hole should exhibit a relativistic redshift. In this study, we used observations of the Galactic
Center star S0-2 to test this prediction. We combined existing spectroscopic and astrometric
measurements from 1995–2017, which cover S0-2's 16-year orbit, with measurements from
March to September 2018, which cover three events during S0-2's closest approach to the
black hole. We detected a combination of special relativistic and gravitational redshift�…
The general theory of relativity predicts that a star passing close to a supermassive black hole should exhibit a relativistic redshift. In this study, we used observations of the Galactic Center star S0-2 to test this prediction. We combined existing spectroscopic and astrometric measurements from 1995–2017, which cover S0-2’s 16-year orbit, with measurements from March to September 2018, which cover three events during S0-2’s closest approach to the black hole. We detected a combination of special relativistic and gravitational redshift, quantified using the redshift parameter ϒ. Our result, ϒ = 0.88 � 0.17, is consistent with general relativity (ϒ = 1) and excludes a Newtonian model (ϒ = 0) with a statistical significance of 5σ.
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