Scientists behind the Event Horizon Telescope just revealed the first photo of a supermassive black hole during a press conference in Belgium. Check it out:
Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun pic.twitter.com/AymXilKhKe
— Event Horizon 'Scope (@ehtelescope) April 10, 2019
The image was created using a series of radio dishes around the world:
The @ehtelescope team built an Earth-sized telescope by linking radio dishes around the world.
In April 2017, all they all swiveled to look at the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a galaxy in Virgo constellation. #RealBlackHole #EHTBlackHole pic.twitter.com/0hUPpDbYkH— National Science Foundation (@NSF) April 10, 2019
You can watch the livestream here.
Hope you’re all tuning into this! Scientists expected to reveal first image of a 'supermassive' black hole #EHTblackhole https://t.co/BYOemGTLXz
— Dr Suze Kundu (@FunSizeSuze) April 10, 2019
And it’s a pretty good day for Albert Einstein:
Our perception of the universe is about to irreversibly change. If we see the shadow of a supermassive black hole's event horizon, it won't only confirm that these monsters exist, it will also be the most extreme test yet of Einstein's general relativity #EHTblackhole
— Dr. Ian O'Neill (@astroengine) April 10, 2019
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