(CNN Spanish) –– Astronomers around the world revealed this Thursday the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A*, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO, for its acronym in English). it’s a statement. According to the scientists, this image “provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and sheds valuable clues as to its workings.”
This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. (Credit: European Southern Observatory)
This photo represents the first direct observation confirming the presence of Sagittarius A*, as the beating heart of this galaxy.
Scientists explained that the black hole is regarding 27,000 light years away from Earth. This is why it appears to be “regarding the same size in the sky as a donut is on the Moon”, even though it is supermassive.
Capture a black hole as a team
The image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a formation that joined eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope, the ESO explained. “The telescope is named following the event horizon, the edge of the black hole beyond which no light can escape,” the observatory added. More than 300 researchers from 80 institutions participated in this effort.
In fact, the image we now know of the black hole Sgr A* is an average of the different images that the EHT has extracted from its 2017 observations.
???? Latest news: Meet the black hole at the center of our galaxy! Astronomers have revealed the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The image was produced by a global research team @ehtelescope ???? EHT Collaboration pic.twitter.com/Y4tlfmfL6k
— ESO Chile (@ESO_Chile) May 12, 2022
The ESO explained in its statement that, although the black hole itself cannot be observed because it is completely dark, the bright gas around it offers key evidence: “a dark central region (called a shadow) surrounded by a structure similar to a shining ring. That is, the new image reveals the light deflected by the powerful gravity of the black hole, “which is four million times more massive than our Sun.”
It took astronomers years to capture and confirm this image and this discovery. Previously, scientists observed stars orbiting some massive, invisible object in the center of the galaxy.
“We were surprised by how well the size of the ring matched the predictions of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity,” said Geoffrey Bower, EHT project scientist, from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Sinia Academy, in Taipei. “These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what is happening at the very center of our galaxy, and offer new insights into how these giant black holes interact with their surroundings,” he added.
