Scientists show first ever image of black hole

The late Stephen Hawking would have jumped off his chair upon seeing this picture had he been alive today...

Scientists show first ever IMAGE of black hole
RT : 10 Apr, 2019

In a much heralded scientific breakthrough a group of astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope have unveiled the first-ever image of a black hole.

The major announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo as the European Commission, European Research Council, and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project detailed the findings of their mission.

Despite their enormous mass black holes are extraordinarily difficult to observe. It is impossible to photograph a black hole’s interior, as light that gets to close to its gravitational pull is lost. This point is known as the event horizon.

"This is a huge day in astrophysics," said US National Science Foundation Director France Córdova. "We're seeing the unseeable."

Dr Shep Doeleman explained that they surveyed the Messier 87 galaxy in an effort to be able to picture the “supermassive black hole and its core.” This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth.

“We are delighted to be able to report to you today, we have seen .. we have seen and taken a picture of a black hole,”  Doeleman said. “Here it is”

What you are seeing is evidence of an event horizon,” he explained. “It is the strongest evidence that we have to date of the existence of black holes.”

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is made up of dozens of observatories that scan the area around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, named Sagittarius A*, and the black hole at the center of the galaxy M87.

The mission sought to capture the first ever image of a black hole’s silhouette. Until now, all that we have been able to see are artists’ impressions.

The scientists gathered the first data in April 2017 using telescopes in the US, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica.

Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the global network. The global network of telescopes has essentially created a planet-sized observational dish.