The First Ever Black Hole Photos Are Here!
Yesterday we announced we’d be seeing the first photos ever shown of a real Black Hole and as of early this morning, the images have surfaced!
The picture reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. It looked like a flaming orange, yellow and black ring.
“We have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole. This is an extraordinary scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 researchers.”
Sheperd Doeleman, Event Project Horizon project director of Harvard University.
Since the black hole is, well, black, what we’re seeing in the image is gas and dust circling around the hole, just far enough away to be safe.
This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.
Black holes are extraordinary cosmic objects with enormous masses but extremely compact sizes. The presence of these objects affects their environment in extreme ways, warping spacetime and super-heating any surrounding material. (Source)
It’s amazing to see something that has entirely made history!
You can watch the replay of the announcement made below.
