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First ever image of Black Hole released


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First ever black hole image released

Black hole

 

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.

Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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.

What is a black hole?

  • A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape
  • Despite the name, they are not empty but instead consist of a huge amount of matter packed densely into a small area, giving it an immense gravitational pull
  • There is a region of space beyond the black hole called the event horizon. This is a "point of no return", beyond which it is impossible to escape the gravitational effects of the black hole

Prof Falcke had the idea for the project when he was a PhD student in 1993. At the time, no-one thought it was possible. But he was the first to realise that a certain type of radio emission would be generated close to and all around the black hole, which would be powerful enough to be detected by telescopes on Earth.

He also recalled reading a scientific paper from 1973 that suggested that because of their enormous gravity, black holes appear 2.5 times larger than they actually are.

These two factors suddenly made the seemingly impossible, possible. After arguing his case for 20 years, Prof Falcke persuaded the European Research Council to fund the project. The National Science Foundation and agencies in East Asia then joined in to bankroll the project to the tune of more than £40m.

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It took years and multiple telescopes piecing this together in a very complicated manner just to get this. It is extremely far away and larger than anybody can imagine. I follow some astronomy channels on YouTube. The next generation of more powerful land and space telescopes being built and launched over the next decade will be able to get much better images of this. And direct images of other stars and their exoplanets which really excites me. The upcoming generation of telescopes will be hundreds of times more powerful than the Hubble telescope and peer into the universe to the near beginning of time. Astronomy is going to get very exciting over the next few decades!

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5 hours ago, Magician said:

It took years and multiple telescopes piecing this together in a very complicated manner just to get this. It is extremely far away and larger than anybody can imagine. I follow some astronomy channels on YouTube. The next generation of more powerful land and space telescopes being built and launched over the next decade will be able to get much better images of this. And direct images of other stars and their exoplanets which really excites me. The upcoming generation of telescopes will be hundreds of times more powerful than the Hubble telescope and peer into the universe to the near beginning of time. Astronomy is going to get very exciting over the next few decades!

i share your excitement !  Astromy is so fascinating and incredible. It is mind blowing to think we are not only looking back in time but looking at things so many light years back. I watch all of the Astromy shows on Discovery, science channels and always am in awe.  Have always been fascinated and frightened of black holes. My Dad used to come outside with myself and my brother when we were young kids,  look up at the stars and tell us we were looking at Suns in the Universe that were around millions of years ago. Had the fascination for it since I was about 6 years old because of my Dad. Space is so incredible. 

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This video breaks down the Herculean work it took to capture the image and the significance of this discovery. This astronomer’s YouTube channel is cool and his videos are easy to understand. 

 

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30 minutes ago, Magician said:

This video breaks down the Herculean work it took to capture the image and the significance of this discovery. This astronomer’s YouTube channel is cool and his videos are easy to understand. 

 

that's the wonderful thing about youtube.. you can really dive into a subject and become a little obsessed with it. I could watch hours and hours of his videos (and many other yt channels).. it's all so fascinating. over the last ten years I became more and more intrigued by our universe..

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8 hours ago, Magician said:

It took years and multiple telescopes piecing this together in a very complicated manner just to get this. It is extremely far away and larger than anybody can imagine. I follow some astronomy channels on YouTube. The next generation of more powerful land and space telescopes being built and launched over the next decade will be able to get much better images of this. And direct images of other stars and their exoplanets which really excites me. The upcoming generation of telescopes will be hundreds of times more powerful than the Hubble telescope and peer into the universe to the near beginning of time. Astronomy is going to get very exciting over the next few decades!

Can't wait!

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I have always been fascinated with the universe and with how everything started. Aside from the ever mysterious nature of life itself it’s the biggest most promising, most terrifying mystery out there. 

It continuously freaks me out to not know what and why and WHERE the universe is. Where are we even? ARE we for real? So unfathomable. 

For all we know it could very well be like this:

 

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