First ever black hole image released.
Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy.
It measures 40 billion km across - three million times the size of
the Earth - and has been described by scientists as "a monster".
The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was
photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world
It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network
of eight linked telescopes.
Prof Heino Falcke, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, who proposed the experiment, told
BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87.
"What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said.
"It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think
exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe."
The image shows an intensely bright "ring of fire", as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly
circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by superheated gas falling into the hole. The light is
brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at
such distance from Earth.
The edge of the dark circle at the centre is the point at which the gas enters the black hole, which is
an object that has such a large gravitational pull, not even light can escape.
The image matches what theoretical physicists and indeed, Hollywood directors, imagined black
holes would look like, according to Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London - who is part of the
EHT collaboration.
"Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions
about the nature of space and time, and ultimately of our existence," he said.
"It is remarkable that the image we observe is so similar to that which we obtain from our theoretical
calculations. So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again."
But having the first image will enable researchers to learn more about these mysterious objects. They
will be keen to look out for ways in which the black hole departs from what's expected in physics.
No-one really knows how the bright ring around the hole is created. Even more intriguing is the
question of what happens when an object falls into a black hole.
Source: www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592
