Measuring the Suns velocity using Gaia EDR3 observations of Stellar Streams


Abstract in English

We measure the Suns velocity with respect to the Galactic halo using Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) observations of stellar streams. Our method relies on the fact that, in low-mass streams, the proper motion of stars should be directed along the stream structure in a non-rotating rest frame of the Galaxy, but the observed deviation arises due to the Suns own reflex motion. This principle allows us to implement a simple geometrical procedure, which we use to analyse 17 streams over a $sim 3-30$ kpc range. Our constraint on the Suns motion is independent of any Galactic potential model, and it is also uncorrelated with the Suns galactocentric distance. We infer the Suns velocity as $V_{R,odot}=8.88^{+1.20}_{-1.22},rm{kms^{-1}}$ (radially towards the Galactic centre), $V_{phi,odot}=241.91^{+1.61}_{-1.73},rm{kms^{-1}}$ (in the direction of Galactic rotation) and $V_{z,odot}=3.08^{+1.06}_{-1.10},rm{kms^{-1}}$ (vertically upwards), in global agreement with past measurements through other techniques; although we do note a small but significant difference in the $V_{z,odot}$ component. Some of these parameters show significant correlation and we provide our MCMC output so it can be used by the reader as an input to future works. The comparison between our Suns velocity inference and previous results, using other reference frames, indicates that the inner Galaxy is not moving with respect to the inertial frame defined by the halo streams.

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