A never-before-witnessed phenomenon has occurred during your lifetime, and this incredible breakthrough will not be the last.
Released on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019, an international scientific team announced one of the most incredible revelations of our time – and something many have long considered “unseeable.”
Right #now Chandra is studying a black hole in Scorpius! Nearby in the sky is this HII ("H-two") region, NGC 6357. HII regions form when radiation from hot, young stars strips away the electrons from neutral hydrogen atoms in surrounding gas to form clouds of ionized hydrogen! pic.twitter.com/lPpmSBewm7
— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) February 26, 2019
An Earth-sized telescope that is made of a combination of many individual telescopes across our planet first synched up in 2017 and worked together to capture a huge amount of data from our neighboring galaxy named M-87.
Working in unison, they gathered all of this information and radio waves over the course of a week. This project was set on capturing the very first image of a black hole humanity has ever seen.
The world is hours away from finally seeing the first image of a #BlackHole as scientists unveil the results of the #EventHorizonTelescope 🔭🌌https://t.co/3Vhd6MxXQq pic.twitter.com/bMh837sFgj
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 10, 2019
For centuries scientists have known about and estimated the size of black holes. This specific one that was observed by the Event Horizon Telescope and photographed, is considered to be a “super-massive black hole” which puts most normal sized ones to shame.
“We have achieved something presumed to be impossible just a generation ago,” said astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.
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In simple terms, a black hole is created when a star dies and collapses in on itself. The ensuing hole that is created also bears an incredibly strong gravitational pull. This pull is so strong that it literally rips apart the fabric of space and time.
Where does a black hole lead? Nobody really knows for sure. But, the discovery of these new images helps to open the door to a better understanding of black holes in general.
A black hole with the mass of the sun exerts the SAME gravitational pull as the sun itself. The difference is that the black hole is much smaller in size and so you can get much closer to it. That's why you can experience a much greater gravitational pull. pic.twitter.com/NvuXbqaCnj
— Brian Greene (@bgreene) April 8, 2019
Scientists first observed the black hole at the center of neighboring galaxy M87 – one of the largest galaxies in the universe. After spotting it in this galaxy, they set out to get more information from it in 2012 – and today’s release is one of the project’s main goals.
M87 sits in the constellation Virgo (for you star-watchers) and is known as a “supergiant elliptical galaxy” that is considered very close to us. 53 million light years is “very close.”
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The image above is the culmination of years of hard work, data crunching, and the cooperation of hundreds of people worldwide.
The very first image of a black hole, while not clear as day, is the gateway to some of the most-amazing astronomical breakthroughs our lifetime could ever see.
Because of this image, scientists are able to make bigger advances in how we understand the universe and – especially, gravity. This creates a way to examine a gravitational pull much more closely and test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Check out the full video below that explains exactly why this blurry photo of a super-massive black hole is important.