Washington: Good news for star gazers and lovers of astronomy. Scientists have released the first direct image of a massive black hole lurking at the center of Messier 87 galaxy that is about 54 million light years away from us.
The image was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which is a network of 8 radio telescopes spread across the planet. The telescopes functioned in tandem as if it is a single receiver, tuned to high-frequency radio waves, to take the image. The combine work of all the telescopes effectively created a virtual telescope the size of the Earth.
The picture shows the event horizon, which is the boundary of the black hole that separates the light and dark areas. A doughnut-like body can be seen in the portrait, which scientists say is the black hole surrounded by hot glowing material.
Member of the science council for EHT said, “We are able to image one more object in the universe that…at one point people thought could not be possible. It hits that human explorer spirit. We got another look into the unknown. ”
The picture confirms the shape of the black hole predicted by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
