Earth is 2,000 Light-Years Closer to Black Hole at Center of Milky Way

Giant Black Hole at Center of Galaxy

A supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* is located at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. If the mass of this black hole is compared to that of the sun, it will be nearly 4 million times our sun. 

So it is Great news! It has been discovered out that we are 2,000 light-years closer to Sagittarius A* than we thought as per our scientists. Please wait if you get panic too soon, we are not going to collide with a black hole and we are not on the collision course with a black hole. But the great news that based on new data, we can acquire a more accurate model of the Milky Way.

VERA: Spectacular Results

VERA, a Japanese radio astronomy project, over the last 15 years has been gathering data based on a technique known as interferometry. Vera combined the data from other exciting projects with the gathered data from telescopes across Japan to create what is essentially the most accurate map of the Milky Way yet.

VERA has concluded by focusing the location and velocity of around 99 specific points in our galaxy that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A located at the center of the galaxy, is 25,800 light-years from Earth which is 2,000 light-years closer than what we last believed.

Earth is Moving Faster

Model created also showed calculations that our planet Earth is moving faster than it was believed. The Earth’s speed orbiting around the galaxy’s center according to the older models clocked was at 220 km (136 miles) per second but the new model by VERA stated that the speed is 227 km (141 miles) per second. The accuracy is commendable.

The accuracy of the model of VERA is now hoping to increase as it will increase the number of points it’s gathering data from by expanding into EAVN (East Asian VLBI Network). It will now aim at gathering data throughout Japan, Korea, and China from a larger suite of radio telescopes.