Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope facility, a collaboration of over 300 researchers, revealed the first image of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
The black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is four million times the mass of our Sun and is 27,000 light years from us.
Astronomers have called this “the first direct image of the gentle giant in the centre of our galaxy.”
The recent image shows a doughnut-shaped dark region, circled by light.
The light comes from the heated gases that are accelerated by gravitational forces.
Its ring is about 60 million km across; roughly the size of Mercury’s orbit around the sun.
The image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope.
It is an ensemble of several telescopes around the world and is 3 million times sharper than the human eye.
When stars reach the end of their lives, they collapse under their own gravity.
The product of this collapse, most astronomers believe is a black hole.
The gravitational pull of a black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape.
Thus, we cannot see the heart of a black hole, but only points outside its outer edge.
Astronomers say that this image could lead to a better understanding of our galaxy.
