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A new map of the Milky Way by Japanese space experts has brought Earth 2,000 light years closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
This map suggested that the center of the Milky Way and the black hole that lies there are 25,800 light years from Earth.
This is closer than the official 27,700 light-year value adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1985, the National Observatory of Japan said.
Also, according to the map, our solar system travels at 227 kilometers per second as it orbits the galactic center – this is faster than the official value of 220 kilometers per second, the statement added.
These updated values are the result of more than 15 years of observations by the Japanese radio astronomy project VERA, according to an announcement released Thursday by the National Observatory of Japan.
VERA is short for VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry and refers to the mission’s series of telescopes, which use the Very Long Baseline Interferometry to explore the three-dimensional structure of the Milky Way.
As the Earth is located inside the Milky Way, it is difficult to step back and see what the galaxy looks like.
To get around this problem, the project used astrometry, the accurate measurement of the position and movement of objects, to understand the overall structure of the Milky Way and the position of the Earth in it.
The black hole is known as Sagittarius A * or Sgr A * and is 4.2 million times more massive than our sun. The supermassive hole and its enormous gravitational field govern the orbits of the stars at the center of the Milky Way.
Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for its discovery.
There are several types of black holes, and scientists believe supermassive ones may be linked to the formation of galaxies, as they often exist at the center of massive star systems, but it is not yet clear exactly how or which one forms first.
More accurate approach
In August, VERA released its first catalog, containing data for 99 celestial objects.
Based on this catalog and recent observations from other groups, the astronomers constructed a map of position and velocity.
From this map, the scientists were able to calculate the center of the galaxy, the point around which everything revolves.
VERA combines data from four radio telescopes across Japan.
The observatory said that, when combined, the telescopes were able to achieve a resolution that would theoretically allow astronomers to locate a US penny placed on the surface of the moon.
To be clear, the changes don’t mean that Earth is rushing towards the black hole, the observatory said.
Rather, the map more accurately identifies where the solar system has been all along.
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