Luciano Rezzolla, Professor für Theoretische Astrophysik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. The breakthrough follows the EHT Collaboration’s 2019 release of the first image of a black hole, called M87*, at the center of the more distant Messier 87 galaxy. Then, they compared this image library with the thousands of different images of the EHT to deduce the properties of Sgr A*. In this way, the scientists created a library of millions of images. For this, a research team led by theoretical astrophysicist Luciano Rezzolla from Goethe University Frankfurt used supercomputers to simulate how a black hole could look like when observed by the EHT – based on what had already been known about Sgr A*. The enormous amount of observational data collected had to be interpreted theoretically. The EHT observed Sgr A* on multiple nights, collecting data for many hours in a row, similar to using a long exposure time on a camera. To image it, the team created the powerful EHT, which linked together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope. Credit: ESOīecause the black hole is about 27,000 light-years away from Earth, it appears to us to have about the same size in the sky as a donut on the Moon. What does it take to capture an image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy? This video explains how the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) works, and how astronomers managed to create one massive Earth-sized telescope big enough to “see” at the edge of black holes. “These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what happens at the very center of our galaxy and offer new insights on how these giant black holes interact with their surroundings.” “We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” says EHT Project Scientist Geoffrey Bower from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun. Credit: Younsi, Fromm, Mizuno & Rezzolla (University College London, Goethe University FrankfurtĪlthough we cannot see the black hole itself, because it is completely dark, glowing gas around it reveals a tell-tale signature: a dark central region (called a “shadow”) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure. This strongly suggested that this object - known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced “sadge-ay-star”) - is a black hole, and this new image provides the first direct visual evidence of it.Įxample of a simulation of how the gas orbits the black hole in the center of our Milky Way and emits radio waves at 1.3 mm. Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact, and very massive at the center of the Milky Way. The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very center of our galaxy. Theoretical Physicists from Goethe University Frankfurt were instrumental in interpreting the data. The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies. Theoretical Physicists of Goethe University Frankfurt were instrumental in interpreting the data.Īstronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. It is the first direct visual evidence of a ring-like structure like M87*. Credit: EHT CollaborationĪstronomers reveal the first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy. It is the first direct visual evidence of the presence of this black hole. Note that unlike mass or volume, the density of a substance is independent of the size of the sample.This is the first image of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
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