If you are an astronomy buff, I’m sure you already know about the supermassive black hole, discovered by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team back in 2019. Now, the global research team has managed to capture the first image of a supermassive black hole that resides at the center of our very own Milky Way galaxy. Check out the details below to know more about it.
Dubbed the Saggitarius A* or Sgr A* (pronounced as “sadge-ay-star”), the supermassive black hole was previously known to exist as scientists saw many stars orbiting “something invisible, compact, and very massive at the center of the Milky Way.” Now, the image of the black hole (header image) provides the first direct visual evidence of its existence. It was recently published at a press conference hosted by the US National Science Foundation and the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration in Washinton DC.
Our own black hole! Astronomers have just revealed the 1st image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy using the @ehtelescope– a planet-scale array of radio telescopes that emerged from decades of NSF support. https://t.co/bC1PZH4yD6 #ourblackhole pic.twitter.com/pd96CH3V0m— National Science Foundation (@NSF) May 12, 2022
Furthermore, imaging the Sgr A*, as per the scientists, was more difficult as compared to the M87*, which is the previously-captured image of the black hole of the Messier 87 galaxy. It is due to the fact that the gas around the bigger M87* black hole orbits at much slower speeds as compared to the gas of the smaller Sgr A* black hole. One of the EHT scientists, Chi-kwan Chan says that it is “a bit like trying to take a clear picture of a puppy quickly chasing its tail.”
