Surprisingly, not a post about the 2020 election:

Earth Is a Whole Lot Closer to Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole Than We Thought
Science Alert | 11/27/2020 | Michelle Starr

It seems that Earth has been misplaced. According to a new map of the Milky Way galaxy, the Solar System’s position isn’t where we thought it was. Not only is it closer to the galactic centre — and the supermassive hole therein, Sagittarius A* — it’s orbiting at a faster clip.

It’s nothing to be concerned about; we’re not actually moving closer to Sgr A*, and we’re in no danger of being slurped up. Rather, our map of the Milky Way has been adjusted, more accurately identifying where we have been all along.

…distances are important — they help us determine the intrinsic brightness of objects. A good recent example of this is the red giant star Betelgeuse, which turned out to be closer to Earth than previous measurements suggested. This means that it’s neither as large nor as bright as we thought. Another is the object CK Vulpeculae, a star that exploded 350 years ago. It’s actually much farther away, which means that the explosion was brighter and more energetic, and requires a new explanation, since previous analyses were performed under the assumption it was relatively low energy.

…

In 1985, the International Astronomical Union defined the distance to the galactic centre as 27,700 light-years. Last year, the GRAVITY collaboration recalculated it and found it closer, just 26,673 light-years away.

The VERA-based measurements bring it closer still, to a distance of just 25,800 light-years. And the Solar System’s orbital speed is faster, too — 227 kilometres (141 miles) per second, rather than the official velocity of 220 kilometres (137 miles) per second.

This photograph is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of a sky full of glittering jewels. The HST peered into the Sagittarius star cloud, a narrow dust-free region, providing this spectacular glimpse of a treasure chest full of stars.

Jeez! “Finding Space To Maneuver: The Final Frontier.”