First Image of Black Hole at Center of Milky Way Galaxy | Event Horizon Telescope

First Image of Black Hole at Center of Milky Way Galaxy | Event Horizon Telescope

This is the first image of Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It is the first direct visual evidence of the presence of this black hole. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which links together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single Earth-sized virtual telescope. The telescope is named after the "event horizon", the boundary of the black hole beyond which no light can escape.

Although we cannot see the event horizon itself, because it cannot emit light, glowing gas orbiting around the black hole reveals a telltale signature: a dark central region, called a "shadow," surrounded by a bright ring-like structure. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is 4 million times more massive than our sun. The image of the Sgr A* black hole is an average of the different images that the EHT Collaboration has extracted from its 2017 observations.

Learn more here: 

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=305148

Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Release Date: May 12, 2022

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