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



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Scientists at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan recently created a new map of the Milky Way galaxy. The galaxy map revealed that Earth is 2,000 light years closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy than previously believed. The researchers also found that the Earth is spinning around the black hole faster than previous estimates.

In 1985, the International Astronomical Union announced that Earth was 27,700 light years away from the black hole at the center of the galaxy, named Sagittarius A *. However, Japanese researchers conducted a 15-year analysis using the VERA radio astronomy project and found that Earth is 25,800 light years away.

Research also revealed that the Earth is orbiting 7 km / s faster than previously thought. Researchers are convinced that the extra speed doesn’t mean Earth suddenly plunges head first towards the black hole. Scientists say the new findings simply give a better model of the Milky Way galaxy.

25,800 light years is still a distance so far that it is difficult to understand. At this distance, it would take 25,800 light years to reach the black hole in the galactic center. Researchers using the VERA Astrometry Catalog created a position and velocity map showing the center of the Milky Way galaxy and objects within the galaxy. The first astrometry catalogs were published this year with data for 99 objects.

The positioning indicates that the Earth revolves around the galactic center, where the black hole resides, at 227 km / s. Scientists initially believed that the orbit was at a speed of 220 km / s. VERA stands for Very Long Baseline Interferometry Exploration of Radio Astronomy, and the project started in 2000 using interferometry to aggregate data from other radio telescopes in Japan.

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