A groundbreaking map from Japan's Astronomical Society reveals our solar system is nearer to the Milky Way's galactic center—and its supermassive black hole—than previously estimated. It's also orbiting faster than expected.
Within our galaxy, like the universe at large, celestial objects are in constant motion. Mapping their two-dimensional positions in the Milky Way is straightforward, but determining precise distances (astrometry) is challenging since we're embedded within it. Accurate distances are crucial for understanding these objects' true nature.
Take Betelgeuse: recent studies confirm it's closer than once thought, meaning it's smaller and less luminous than believed.
The Japanese VERA project (VLBI – Very Long Baseline Interferometry – Exploration of Radio Astrometry), launched in the early 2000s, refines these measurements. It networks radio telescopes across Japan to achieve the resolution of a 2300-kilometer-diameter instrument.
This mirrors the Event Horizon Telescope, which captured the first black hole image in 2019.
VERA measures stellar distances via parallax, tracking nearby stars' positions against distant backgrounds over a year to calculate Earth distances.
Recent VERA analysis pins our solar system at just 25,800 light-years from the galactic center. For context, the International Astronomical Union set it at 27,700 light-years in 1985; the GRAVITY collaboration revised it to 26,673 light-years last year.
VERA also clocks the Sun's orbital speed at 227 kilometers per second around the center—faster than the prior estimate of about 220 km/s.
