Median Statistics Estimate of the Distance to the Galactic Center. (11th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Camarillo, Tia; Mathur, Varun; Mitchell, Tyler; Ratra, Bharat
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Volume 130:Number 984(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-01-11
• Subjects: distance scale -- Galaxy: fundamental parameters -- methods: data analysis -- methods: statistical; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astronomy; Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/aa9b26
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6280

Abstract

Abstract: We show that error distributions of a compilation of 28 recent independent measurements of the distance from the Sun to the Galactic center, R 0, are wider than a standard Gaussian and best fit by an n = 4 Student's t probability density function. Given this non-Gaussianity, the results of our median statistics analysis, summarized as R 0 = 8.0 ± 0.3 kpc (2 σ error), probably provides the most reliable estimate of R 0 .