According to new research from outside Japan, the supermassive black hole hidden in the center of our galaxy is much closer to Earth than scientists thought.
Not only that but ours Solar system It is moving faster than thought while orbiting the center of this galaxy.
All of this doesn’t mean you need to worry that the Earth is zooming towards a central behemoth or that we’ll be pulled by a gravity monster, the researchers noted. We still have many paths from black holes, Sagittarius A * (SGR A *): 25,800 light-years, where a light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers).
Related: The biggest findings of the black hole
This study was conducted by VARA. Is part of the experiment, or VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry, aimed at discovering the three-dimensional structure of galaxies. We live inside the Milky Way galaxy, so scientists can’t just take a snapshot of its composition to find out. Instead, they take precise measurements of the size, locations, and orbital velocities of stars – how quickly they circle in the galactic center – in a scientific field called astrometry. The resulting map will shed light on the details of our galaxy, the stars in it, and possibly the universe.
Researchers can now “measure the distances of stars far from our solar system and 30,000 light-years,” said Tomoya Hirota, a professor in Sokenda’s astronomy department and leader of the data analysis team at VERA.
Measure a monster
How can you measure the distance from a black hole, since Sgr is equal to A *, which weighs 4.5 million times the mass of the Sun? Very precisely.
To do this, researchers with VERA used four very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) telescopes in Japan. These observations work together to achieve results with a diameter of about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) compared to a telescope. The resolution is so sharp that when compared to human vision it is like seeing a penny on the surface of the moon. However, the VRAA It is designed to see things that are farther away from the moon. For instance, VERA can isolate the star’s annual local shift within 10 micro-arcseconds, which is 1 / 360,000,000 angles of distance between two tick marks on the protractor.
Using four telescopes, the researchers were able to measure the exact position, size and orbital velocity of galaxy stars. VERA published a list of 99 Milky Way objects budgets. From the information cataloged, they created a location and velocity map. This map helped them orbit around the center of the galaxy and, in turn, successively-in place. With this new location, they discovered a more accurate velocity of the solar system.
They used this information to reveal our location in the galaxy and to determine the galaxy’s three-dimensional velocity and spatial structure, which is a blocked spiral.
They found that Sagittarius is * closer than 2,000 light-years closer to Earth than determined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). 1985. In addition, our solar system is traveling 510,000 miles (227 km / s), faster than previous, official, recorded speeds. The VRA’s measurements are considered to be more accurate than in the past because the group has used more advanced technology and has been modified to reflect the previous measurements of how the Earth’s atmosphere is obscured.
The new findings also agree with the measurements of the distance recorded in 2019 in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, which put the Earth around 26,660 light-years from SGR. A *, Nicholas Santzeff, a distinguished professor and director of the astronomy program at the University of Texas A&M, told Live Science. Also, Santzeff wondered why the team compared their results primarily to 1985 data, rather than to a more recent measure in an experiment called Gravity, in which the Northern European Southern Observatory (ESO) has a very large telescope (VLT) attached to a gravity instrument. . Chile.
Hirota agreed that the VERA findings should be compared with Gravity. “An important point is that we can use the same method independently of gravity results using a different method.”
The new findings have implications for solving some of the most enduring mysteries of astronomy.
“These results can be used for other astronomical parameters such as the distribution of dark matter and its density around the solar system, and can also help scientists predict how often we should see imaginary dark matter particles,” Hirota said. Whose group has been working for more than 15 years to improve astrometry techniques and accuracy. The discovery of many dark objects depends on the “wind” of dark matter flowing through the solar system. It is believed that some of the dark matter will interact with earth-based detectors. A fast dark object will make big signals. If the VERA experiment is correct, and the solar system is moving faster, it is possible that it will be easier to find the dark matter than what scientists think.
In their next collaboration, Veera researchers will focus on objects objects near the heart of the galaxy. With each measurement, we will know our place in the universe better.
