![]() Last year, a telescope captured the very first image of an “unseeable” black hole, dazzling the scientific community and space enthusiasts alike with a static picture of M87*, the supermassive object at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy.Ĭan scientists take pictures of black holes? Has a black hole ever been photographed if so how? 3 Why is the first image of a black hole so important?.2 Are there photographs of black holes?.1 Has a black hole ever been photographed if so how?.You can read about Broderick's work here. When we'll see Sagittarius A* remains to be seen, but now that the technology behind the EHT has been proven, our understanding of supermassive black holes is sure to blossom.įull disclosure: Author Ian O'Neill worked with the University of Waterloo on their press announcement and an article showcasing Avery Broderick, a professor at Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute, and member of the EHT team. As most of the intergalactic space between us and M87 is pretty empty, scattering is less of a problem. Also, as we are embedded inside our galaxy's disk, which contains a lot of interstellar dust, the EHT's signal suffers more scattering, making it more challenging to resolve. One problem is that as Sagittarius A* is smaller, its emissions vary over shorter timescales than M87's monstrous black hole, making observations more difficult. The EHT collaboration will continue observing M87 and a second target, the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, a 4 million solar mass object called Sagittarius A*.Ĭounterintuitively, although Sagittarius A* is comparatively close (only 25,000 light-years away, 2,000 times closer to us than M87), it has a different set of challenges. On seeing this first image, physicists remarked on how precisely the reality of a black hole's event horizon matches the predictions of general relativity. ![]() All of the theoretical predictions for what the EHT might see are based on the framework of Einstein's general relativity, a theory that has proven robust since its formulation more than 100 years ago. This is possibly the most profound outcome of the EHT's observation. "It was a relief and a source of pride to realise that the observations matched our predictions so well." ![]() "The confrontation of theory with observations is always a dramatic moment for a theorist," said EHT board member Luciano Rezzolla of Goethe Universität, Germany, in an ESO statement. These emissions are being produced just outside the black hole's event horizon, where the extremely hot gases orbiting it are heated to several billions of degrees Kelvin, with the event horizon itself appearing as a silhouetted dark disk against a bright background – features that confirm what theoretical physicists predicted in the run-up to today. This is why the EHT's first image shows a dark circle surrounded by a bright ring of emissions. "This is an extraordinary scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 researchers."Īlthough black holes are, well, black, should there be any matter close to the event horizon, extreme friction in the relativistic environment will rip electrons from atoms, creating a powerful fireworks display. ![]() Doeleman, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in a statement. "We have taken the first picture of a black hole," said EHT project director Sheperd S. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a virtual telescope as wide as our planet – and powerful enough to capture the first glimpse of one of the most massive black holes known to exist. To remedy this, astronomers used a method known as very long baseline interferometry to combine the collective observing power of eight of the world's most powerful radio telescopes to do the job. Despite its incredible size and mass, no single telescope on the planet could capture its portrait. ![]()
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