Earth is closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy than we thought

This map suggested that the center of the Milky Way, and the black hole that sits there, is located 25,800 light years from Earth. This is more than the 27,700 light-year official price adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1985, the National Observatory of Japan said.

According to the release, it is more that according to the map, our solar system is traveling at a speed of 227 kilometers per second as it orbits around the galactic center – it is faster than the official value of 220 kilometers per second.

Because the Earth lies inside the Milky Way, it is difficult to step back and see what the Milky Way looks like. To get around this, the project used astronomy, accurate measurement of the position and motion of objects, to understand the overall structure of the Milky Way and the location of the Earth in it.

The black hole is known as Sagittarius A * or Sgr A * and is 4.2 million times larger than our Sun. The supermassive hole and its massive gravitational field control the orbits of the stars at the center of the Milky Way. Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez earned the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery. There are many types of black holes, and scientists believe that may be associated with the formation of supermassive galaxies, as they often exist at the center of massive star systems – but it is still unclear how, Or which form first.

More accurate approach

In August, VERA published its first catalog, which contained data on 99 celestial bodies. Based on this list and recent observations by other groups, astronomers constructed a position and velocity map. From this map, scientists were able to calculate the center of the galaxy, the point that rotates everything.

VERA combines data from four radio telescopes in Japan. The observatory stated that, when combined, telescopes were able to achieve a resolution that would in principle allow astronomers to spot United States money placed on the lunar surface.

To be clear, the changes do not mean that the Earth is flowing towards a black hole, the Observatory said. Rather, the map more accurately identifies where the solar system is all along.