The big black hole in the heart of our galaxy was ‘photographed’ for the first time

The first image of the black hole in the heart of our galaxy proves beyond any doubt, as the scientists pointed out, that it is indeed a black hole.

Astronomers have previously seen stars moving around something invisible with a large mass in the center of our galaxy and named this area Sagittarius A * or Sgr A * for short, considering it a black hole, as is the case. in other galaxy centers. Now the “photograph” of the object provides the first direct visual proof that it really is a black hole. Although the black hole itself is not visible, as it is completely dark, a ring of gases and other materials shines around it.

Have you seen the picture of the black hole at the center of our galaxy?

The image of Sagittarius A * (inset) was taken by @EHTelescope. Now see it in context with support from our @ChandraXray, Swift and NuSTAR observatories. Here’s what the colors mean: https://t.co/Qkt3Qu3v1r pic.twitter.com/BONW7QZhsu

– NASA (@NASA) May 12, 2022

At the same time, the image made possible by the Horizon Event Telescope (EHT) once again confirmed Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. The researchers published the study in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Because the black hole is about 27,000 light-years from Earth, it appears to be about the size of a “donut” in the moon. The ETH, which combines the power of eight radio telescopes into a single virtual telescope, observed Sagittarius A * over several nights, collecting data for many hours.

The image of the black hole of our galaxy is very similar to the first image of a black hole that was “pulled” by the EIT in 2019 in another galaxy, Messier 87 (M87), at a distance of 54 million light years. The scientists pointed out that photographing Sagittarius A * was significantly more difficult, even though it is much closer to the black hole of M87, as the dust in the center of our galaxy poses greater obstacles to photography.

The final image of “our” black hole that was made public, emerged from the combination of different images taken by scientists in successive phases. The five-year effort involved more than 300 researchers from 80 research institutes in many countries.