Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is Closer than Astronomers Thought

The distance between our Solar System and Sagittarius A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, is approximately 25,800 light-years, about 1,900 light-years closer than previous estimate, according to an analysis of data from the Japanese VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometer) project VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry).

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Image credit: NAOJ.

Position and velocity map of the Milky Way Galaxy; arrows show position and velocity data for 224 objects used to model the Galaxy; the solid black lines show the positions of the Galaxy’s spiral arms; the colors indicate groups of objects belonging the same arm.

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Earth Is 2,000 Light-Years Closer to Our Galaxy's Black Hole Than We Thought

Scientists made a new map of the Milky Way, which puts our solar system’s location closer to the Milky Way’s black hole.