Black Hole Picture 2019: First Ever Image Revealed By Scientists

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James J. Williams
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The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. In coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers revealed that they succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the centre of Messier 87 and its shadow. The shadow of a black hole seen here is the closest we can come to an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary — the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name — is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 40 billion km across. While this may sound large, this ring is only about 40 microarcseconds across — equivalent to measuring the length of a credit card on the surface of the Moon. Although the telescopes making up the EHT are not physically connected, they are able to synchronize their recorded data with atomic clocks — hydrogen masers — which precisely time their observations. These observations were collected at a wavelength of 1.3 mm during a 2017 global campaign. Each telescope of the EHT produced enormous amounts of data – roughly 350 terabytes per day – which was stored on high-performance helium-filled hard drives. These data were flown to highly specialised supercomputers — known as correlators — at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and MIT Haystack Observatory to be combined. They were then painstakingly converted into an image using novel computational tools developed by the collaboration.

The first ever photograph of a black hole has been revealed by scientists on April 11, 2019.

Until now we have only ever been able to imagine what a black hole might look like, but now scientists from all over the world have worked together to take the first ever picture of one.

Eight observatories from all over the world linked together back in 2017 to form one giant virtual telescope called the Event Horizon Telescope (or EHT for short).

The EHT has captured an image of a ‘monster’ black hole, which sits around 54 million light years away from Earth, in a different galaxy called Messier 87.

The black hole is three million times the size of the Earth, and spews out a hot jet stream of particles that stretches for 5,000 light years.

Image credit: EHT collaboration

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A black hole is a dying star that has collapsed inward under the pressure of its own weight.

The pull of gravity from its centre becomes so strong that even light can’t escape, which is why it looks black.

It essentially becomes a super massive ‘vacuum’ sucking in stars, planets or anything that gets too close – a bit like when you pull the plug in the bath.

Black holes are also invisible, technically speaking, which has meant it has been very tricky for scientists to capture them on camera.

As things get sucked into the black hole the radiation energy bursts out from behind it, which the EHT team have used to help them take a picture, and is the reason why it looks a bit like a silhouette.

Most galaxies are thought to have a supermassive black hole at their centre.

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