Earth Inching Closer To Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole At 7kms: Study

According to a new map released by the National astronomical observatory in Japan showed Earth is swirling faster and some 2000 light-years closer to a supermassive black hole situated at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

In 1985, the International Astronomical Union claimed that Earth is 27,700 light-years far from a Sagittarius A* black hole. But a 15-year study by the Japanese radio astronomy project VERA discovered that Earth is actually 25,800 light-years away. They also discovered that the Earth was now speeding 7 km/s faster than they previously believed.

Since Earth is located inside the galaxy, it is difficult to step back and see what the galaxy looks like. To think about this, the project uses the method of astrometry to measure the position and motion of objects, to understand the overall structure of the galaxy and the Earth's position in it.

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The black hole Sagittarius A* is a 4.2million times larger than our Sun. The supermassive hole and its extensive gravitational field rule the orbits of stars at the center of the galaxy. Reinhard Ganzel and Andrea Gaze won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries. 

There are many types of black holes, and scientists believe that the supermassive ones may have been involved in the formation of the galaxy, as they probably exist at the center of the massive star systems - but it is still unclear how.

In August, VERA declared its first list, which contained data on 99 celestial bodies. Based on recent observations and this list by other groups, astronomers created a location and velocity map. From this map, scientists were able to measure the center of the galaxy, the point at which everything revolves.

Data from four radio telescopes in Japan has been combined by VERA. When paired, the telescope was able to achieve a resolution that in principle would allow astronomers to see a penny from the United States placed on the lunar surface, the observatory said.

To be clear, the changes do not mean the Earth is sinking into a black hole, the observatory said. Rather, maps more precisely identify where the solar system has been all along.