How Astronomers Took The First Ever Image Of A Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope has become the first ever to take an image of a supermassive black hole. The black hole is located 55 million light-years away in the Messier 87 galaxy.

Following is a transcript of the video:

What you are seeing is the first ever image of a black hole. Maybe it doesn’t look spectacular at first. But consider this: Black holes by their very nature are invisible.

Because their gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape them. So for many years, astronomers thought that an image like this was impossible. How do you take a picture of something that does not emit light?

Well, it starts with a small team of innovators. And ends with a telescope that’s unlike anything the world has ever seen. Now, despite major advances in telescope technology there is no single telescope on Earth that can take a picture of a black hole.

They’re all too small. So, astronomers innovated.  If one telescope couldn’t do the job, then perhaps 8 would — and they were right. They used 8 radio telescopes stationed at different points across the world.  And kept them all in synch with powerful atomic clocks. They call the effort the Event Horizon Telescope.

This series of telescopes, combined, has about the same capabilities as a telescope as large as our entire planet. And for the first time in history, it has shown us what a black hole around 55 million light years away looks like. This black hole is actually a supermassive black hole.

It’s about 6.5 billion times as massive as our Sun — that’s enormous even compared to other supermassive black holes and lives in the center of the Messier 87 galaxy. And as far as experts can tell, it looks EXACTLY like what Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted. Here’s a simulation of what the Event Horizon Team thought the black hole would look like.  And here’s the real image.

The light you see here is what’s called the accretion disk. It’s a disk of light that forms around the black hole when a star travels too close and is broken apart in the process. But the most important part of this photo is where there is no light. That dark circle in the center, which measures 25 billion miles across.

That right there, is proof that black holes look and behave how astronomers thought. More specifically, that they actually have an edge. It’s a place of no return, which astronomers call the event horizon. Once you cross the event horizon, the black hole’s gravity is so strong that you cannot escape it. Not you, nor the fastest spacecraft, not even the fastest thing in the universe: light.

That’s why the edge and everything beyond it are black. Trapped inside the black hole’s gravitational grip. And this image may be just the beginning.

The Event Horizons Telescope team has also turned its sights on another black hole. One that is closer to home, called Sagittarius A*. It’s the supermassive black hole at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. But it’s significantly smaller than the one in Messier 87.

So it will be more difficult to image. And since it took astronomers two years to combine and analyze data for this first image it may be a while before we see what other black holes look like.

MORE SPACE SCIENCE CONTENT:
What If The Most Powerful Nuclear Bomb Explodes In Space
Can You Skydive From The International Space Station?
How Europe Will Save Space Travel

------------------------------------------------------

#BlackHole #Astronomy #ScienceInsider

Science Insider tells you all you need to know about science: space, medicine, biotech, physiology, and more.

------------------------------------------------------

How Astronomers Took The First Ever Image Of A Black Hole

[yogesh]

Again it proves that Albert Einstein was a genius.

[lennoxalvarino]

Black Hole: you won't be seeing me humans
Humans: Hold my beer

[ItsJohn.]

10% :Why is it blurry?
90% : *Memes*

[AlphaAndOmega]

Wish I could toss my student loans and mother in law in that hole!!!

[slahh]

2 years later: Yes WE FOUND ANOTHER BLACK HOLE
Scientist: thats the same one as before...
. .

[TsunaXZ]

Discovered the real picture of blackhole

**Realized it was a photo of the past**

[samalass]

Einstein so smart at predicting science that he predicted accurate stuff decades after he died...

[Pi-gpbz]

Thank you to all the peoples who contributed to let the whole world finally see a picture of a black hole.
You guys are truly amazing❤❤

[syedali]

US Citizens: Decrease Nasa Budget.
Nasa: Look we found a black hole.

[dhanushkumar]

I guess Soon Huawei will release a device which can go zoom till the black hole..

[vegetaandslaine]

I am so proud of innovators and all the people who were part of this task!!

Thank you

[schoidz]

When I'm old, I'm gonna tell my grandkids about The war for Youtube, the first foldable phone, the first smartphone, and the first black hole picture, the wonderful thing of laughing because of a funny picture on our screen, us colonizing Mars,
Adpocalypse 1 and 2, and polar bears... yea

[nitroussoda]

This is so amazing! I wish Sir Stephen Hawking was alive to see this, R.I.P

[dusscode]

Astronomers: “We took a picture of the black hole for the first time!”

Huawei: “Hold by beer.”

[MCxSTORMx]

Just shows how insignificant humanity is, we all live on a microscopic speck of dust in the scale of the Universe

[kevina]

I've been thinking about this. To anyone confused by the connection between a light year and time, think of it this way. Have you ever heard an echo in a large room, cave.. empty house? An echo is literally the same sound you created bouncing off of a wall or floor hitting your eardrums at a later time. Take this idea of an echo and think of it as an image. Take that empty room and blow it up to the size of space. Light takes time to get to the other side of that room. In this situation, it's an echo of an image from 55 million years ago.. Sound is a lot slower than light, so the fact it took 55 million years for that light to travel all the way to earth is hard to imagine.

[mysterym]

I didn't even know this was the first image? How is every picture of a black hole I've ever seen an illustration?

[Ali-vekm]

1969: moon landing


2019: black hole image


50 Years Later:



Dad still missing

[darkspace]

You'll never see my face and live.
-blackhole

[gowcow]

They should use this to look at planets that might have life