Earth inching closer to Milky Way's supermassive black hole at 7kms: Study

According to a new map issued by a Japanese radio astronomy project VERA, planet Earth has edged some 2000 light-years closer to a supermassive black hole situated at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. Not just that, the sole habitable planet in the solar system was now speeding 7 km/s (~16,000 mph) faster towards the gigantic celestial void.

Based on new values drafted by the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry, the Supermassive Black Hole is now sitting at 25,800 light-years from Earth, whereas, in 1985, the International Astronomical Union had calculated this value to be 27,700 light-years. 

In an official announcement, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan revealed that the Japanese space researchers initiated the project to measure the three-dimensional velocity and spatial structures in the Milky Way in 2000 using the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

Space geodetic technique accumulates the signal from space from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using this technique, more than 15 years of observations were compiled, which was accrued using the mission's array of telescopes. Scientists in the Japanese laboratory mapped three-dimensional velocity and spatial structures of the Milky Way and the position of the Earth and published the map in VERA’s Astrometry Catalog which also contained the data for 99 other celestial objects.

[Center of the Milky Way galaxy, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), located in the middle. Credit: NASA]

[Position and velocity map of the Milky Way Galaxy. Arrows show position and velocity data for the 224 objects used to model the Milky Way Galaxy. The solid black lines show the positions of the Galaxy’s spiral arms. Credit: NAOJ]

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4.2 million times the size of Sun

Researchers, in a NAOJ release, informed that the measurement accuracy of the galactic objects and the Earth achieved with interferometry technique helped study details with the same resolution as the 2300 km diameter telescope. As per the researchers, this resolution (10 micro-arcseconds), "is sharp enough in theory to resolve a United States penny placed on the surface of the Moon." 

"Astrometry, accurate measurement of the positions and motions of objects, is a vital tool to understand the overall structure of the Galaxy and our place in it," they further added.

The supermassive black hole, known as the Sagittarius A* or Sgr A* is an estimated 4.2 million times the size of the sun and has an intense gravitational field. It was first discovered by Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. VERA aims to get more details about the objects surrounding the Supermassive Blackhole and will enhance the equipment for the same. It will participate in EAVN (East Asian VLBI Network) comprising of a radio telescope located in Japan, South Korea, and China.

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(Image Credit: NAOJ)