Thread by @weatherindia

New #Milkyway Map Show #Earth 2,000 Light Years Closer to Massive #BlackHole Than Previously Thought

weather.com/en-IN/india/sp…

By- @MrigDixit

(📸: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech))

A new cosmic map has suggested that the #Earth is spiralling 2,000 light-years closer to the #BlackHole located at the centre of our #MilkyWay galaxy.Dont worry,our planet is not plunging into the black hole soon as it is still thousands of light-years away from the black hole.

The new map constructed by the #astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) is developed using data collected over the past 15 years. It places #Earth just 25,800 light-years away from the centre of the galaxy where the #BlackHole resides.

In 1985, the International Astronomical Union estimated the official value to be around 27,700 light-years. This means that our planet is now nearly 2000 light-years closer to the #BlackHole

Position and velocity map of the #MilkyWay Galaxy.Arrows show position and velocity data for the 224 objects used to model the #MilkyWay.The solid black lines show the positions of the Galaxy’s spiral arms.The colors indicate groups of objects belonging the same arm.

(📸:NAOJ)

The #BlackHole found at the centre of our galaxy is known as Sagittarius A* and is said to be 4.2 million times more massive than our Sun.

The map has been developed by #VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) project of the National Observatory of Japan. Altogether, the data from the last 15 years gives a better model of the #MilkyWay galaxy, in addition to the other cosmic objects studied under this project.

In 2020, First #VERA Astrometry Catalog documented about 99 cosmic objects. For further observation, the #VERA team is planning to study and calculate the distance of objects which are in particular closer to the supermassive #BlackHole.