There are scientists watching the skies non-stop for any new threat that might come our way – these are the ones that spot asteroids coming towards Earth that might destroy us like the dinosaurs.
But what to do if the Earth itself is moving towards a dangerous target?
Japanese astronomers have observed that the Earth is moving towards a giant supermassive black hole, and it’s getting faster with each passing moment.
Here’s what we know so far
Japanese radio astronomy project VERA issued a new map that shows that Earth is now 2000 light-years closer to the gigantic black hole at the center of our galaxy. It was also found that Earth’s speed towards this black hole has also gotten faster by 7 km/s that is 25,200 km/h.
The new values show that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A is now at a distance of 25,800 light-years – whereas it was 27,700 light-years away in 1985. This means that Earth has moved by nearly 2000 light-years in just 35 years. Going by this trend, and assuming that it continues like this – it will take just 420 years before Earth almost reaches the black hole. But obviously, that is a conjecture and we don’t know all the factors to say that this is what will actually happen.
And how do we know this?
The official announcement by the National Astronomical Observatory says that the three-dimensional velocity and the spatial locations were measured by using the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).
Another method called the Space geodetic technique by NASA’s JPL was also used to corroborate the data from the last 15 years of observations.
This black hole is 4.2 million times bigger than the Sun
The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is called the Sagittarius A and it is 4.2 million times heavier than our sun, and its size is 30 times bigger than our sun. It has such a strong gravitational field that the entire Milky Way galaxy revolves around it.
What’s really surprising and almost unbelievable that our Earth is moving towards this black hole at the speed of 227 km/s that is 817,200 kilometers per hour.
Featured Image Courtesy: NewMag