“We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity," said EHT Project Scientist Geoffrey Bower from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun. This strongly suggested that this object - known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced "sadge-ay-star") - is a black hole, and today’s image provides the first direct visual evidence of it.Īlthough we cannot see the black hole itself, because it is completely dark, glowing gas around it reveals a telltale signature: a dark central region (called a “shadow”) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure. Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact, and very massive at the centre of the Milky Way. The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy. The image has been unveiled by JIVE Chief Scientist and EHT Project Director Huib Jan van Langevelde at the European Southern Observatory Headquarters in Garching (Germany), one of the press conferences organised by the EHT Collaboration around the world.įirst direct evidence of a Black Hole at SgrA* The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration - including participation in the Netherlands of astronomers and technicians from University of Amsterdam, Radboud University, Leiden University, University of Groningen, JIVE ERIC and ASTRON - using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies. Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.
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