New research suggests future images of black holes could be precise enough to allow scientists to determine if these objects are accurately described by Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity — or if they are best modeled by alternative theories.
Such black hole research is possible due to breakthroughs in black hole imaging pioneered by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which revealed the first image of a black hole in 2019. This image focused on the supermassive black hole at the heart of the distant galaxy M87. In fact, our galaxy has its own central supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) — and the EHT collaboration revealed an image of that one too, in 2022.
