Earth is 2,000 light-years closer to the Milky Way’s miraculous black hole

There is one in the center of our galaxy The miraculous black hole called Sagittarius A *. It is about 4 million times heavier than our sun.

Great news! Scientists have found that Sagittarius A * is 2,000 light-years closer than we thought.

This does not mean that we are currently in conflict with the black hole. No, this is the result of a more accurate model of the Milky Way based on new data.

For the past 15 years, the Japanese radio astronomy program, Vera, has been collecting data. Using a technique called interferometry, Vera collected data from telescopes across Japan and combined it with data from other existing projects to create a more accurate map of the Milky Way.

By pointing to the position and speed of about 99 specific points in our galaxy, Vera determined that the miraculous black hole Sagittarius A at the center of our galaxy is actually 25,800 light-years from Earth, nearly 2,000 light-years closer to us in previously believed.

Furthermore, the new model calculates that the Earth is moving faster than we think. Older models travel at a speed of 220 kilometers (136 miles) per second around the center of the galaxy. VERA’s new model moved us at a speed of 227 kilometers (141 miles) per second.

Not bad!

Vera now hopes to increase the accuracy of her model by expanding to EAVN (East Asian VLPI Network) and increasing the size of data collection points by collecting data from large radio telescopes located in Japan, Korea and China. .