Astronomers from Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have unveiled an image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy
Pictured for the very first time, the gargantuan black hole that lives at the centre of our galaxy provides valuable insight into the workings of such giants, which are thought to exist at the centre of most galaxies.
Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around a massive, invisible, and compact object, resembling a black hole and this image provides the first direct visual evidence of it.
At an approximate distance of 27,000 light years from Earth, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced “sadge-ay-star”) appears to us to be the same size in the sky as a donut on the moon.
To image it, the global research team created the powerful EHT, which linked together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope.
Although it is not possible to see the black hole itself, as it is completely dark, the glowing gas around it reveals a dark central region (called a “shadow”) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure.
The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than the Sun.
“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.
“These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what happens at the very centre of our galaxy, and offer new insights on how these giant black holes interact with their surroundings.”
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.
The breakthrough follows the EHT 2019 collaboration’s release of the first image of a black hole called M87*, at the centre of the more distant Messier 87 galaxy.
Ticker News: Danaya Malenda contributed to this report.
