Earth Is Closer to Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole Than We Thought

According to a new map of the milky way galaxy based on recent Japanese Vera Astrometry Catalog published in the Astronomical Society of Japan called The First VERA Astrometry Catalog, the position of our planet and its entire solar system are not where we thought it was. Using more than 15 years of observations by the Japanese radio astronomy project VERA, Japanese scientists provided an up-to-date model. Not only our solar system is closer to the super massive black hole in the center of our galaxy than previously believed, but also as it turns out, our entire solar system is orbiting around the galactic center faster than what was previously calculated.

Thumbnail artwork by Vadim Sadovski

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Sources:

The First VERA Astrometry Catalog
https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.03089

Earth Faster, Closer to Black Hole in New Map of Galaxy
https://www.miz.nao.ac.jp/veraserver/hilight/20201125_catalog/index-e.html

Earth Is a Whole Lot Closer to Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole Than We Thought
https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-is-significantly-closer-to-our-galaxy-s-supermassive-black-hole-than-we-thought

How Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/

UCLA and UC Berkeley faculty share the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/andrea-ghez-wins-2020-nobel-prize-physics#:~:text=UCLA%20professor%20Andrea%20Ghez%20and,a%20supermassive%20compact%20object%20at