For the first time, astronomers captured an image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This is the first direct observation confirming the black hole as the beating heart of the Milky Way.
Astronomers believe most galaxies have giant black holes at their centers where light and matter cannot escape. If you think of the Milky Way galaxy as a city, the black hole is like downtown where there’s constant movement and bustling crowds. This makes it quite difficult to capture quality images.
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The Event Horizon Telescope project captured the colorized image of the Milky Way’s black hole, known as Sagittarius A*. The EHT is a collection of eight synchronized radio telescopes around the world. The black hole is located about 27,000 light-years away from Earth, which is actually 2,000 light-years closer than scientists initially suspected.
The first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.Though black holes do not emit light, the image shows the shadow of the black hole surrounded by a bright ring. Interestingly enough, light bent by the gravity of the black hole creates the ring. Further, the black hole confirms Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Sagittarius A* is precisely the size that Einstein’s equations dictate – a figure 4 million times more massive than our sun.
While black holes are known to gobble up galactic material, Feryal Ozel of the University of Arizona said this one is “eating very little”. Ozel further described Sagittarius A* as a “gentle giant” as opposed to the voracious cosmic destroyer you might imagine. With such little material falling into the center, astronomers were able to gaze deeper into the black hole.
Astronomers will now look to take their data and improved technology to hopefully capture a “movie” of the black hole.
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