Discover the First Picture of a Black Hole

This is a historic image that was unveiled on Wednesday by the international scientific consortium Event Horizon Telescope: the central black hole of the giant galaxy M87.

In April 2017, eight telescopes around the world had simultaneously targeted two black holes with one goal: to try to get an image. For two years, the scientific community has been waiting for this result.

The image was presented at six major press conferences held simultaneously in several cities around the world: Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Tokyo, Taiwan and Washington.

What exactly are we looking at?

“This image published today clearly shows a ring structure with a circular and dark central region: it is the shadow of the black hole, which stands out against a brilliant background, exactly what Einstein’s general relativity predicts. “, explains the CNRS by way of press release.

The shadow is a combination of “gravitational deviations of light” caused by the black hole whose “mass is 6.5 billion times that of our sun”.

“The orange structure corresponds to the superheated material around the black hole, a gas hot plasma, whose light is deflected and reinforced by the black hole that acts like a lens,” says the CNRS.

Process By combining a fleet of radio telescopes with supercomputers from around the world, the EHT has managed to create a virtual telescope about 10,000 km in diameter, close to the size of the earth.

The larger the telescope, the more detail it can see. And astronomers have retained two targets: the two largest black holes, seen from the Earth.

“In the center of our galaxy, a black hole was hidden. For the first time, astronomers have discovered a photograph of this celestial object. The impatience of the specialists of the discipline as well as the general public is palpable, for multiple reasons.

At the moment, scientists can only observe the surrounding black holes, not what is inside their discs. The announcement of this historic photograph was broadcast live.”

One, Sagittarius A * is nestled in the center of the Milky Way, 26,000 light years from Earth. Its mass is equivalent to 4.1 million times that of the Sun. Its radius is one tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The other is one of the most massive black holes, 1,500 times more than Sagittarius A *. It has no name and is located 55 million light-years from Earth, in the heart of the M87 galaxy. It is this one that the team of scientists behind the Event Horizon Telescope project was able to take a photo.

Relive the announcement of the first image of a black hole in the world at the press conference in Brussels.