Apr 10

Science News: This is the first photo of a black hole

On April 2017, scientists used a global network of telescopes to see and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole, according to an announcement by researchers at the National Science Foundation Wednesday morning. They captured an image of the black hole at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

“We have seen what we thought was unseeable,” said Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. “We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole.”

 

 

The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, called EHT, is a global network of telescopes that captured the first-ever photograph of a black hole.

In their attempt to capture an image of a black hole, scientists combined the power of eight radio telescopes around the world using Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry, according to the European Southern Observatory, which is part of the EHT. This effectively creates a virtual telescope around the same size as the Earth itself.

Black holes are made up of huge amounts of matter squeezed into a small area, according to NASA, creating a massive gravitational field which draws in everything around it, including light.

 

8 Responses to “Science News: This is the first photo of a black hole”

  1. Molly Hart L

    If ya think we went to the moon, you will most likely believe this too! For the $50 million taxpayer dollars NASA gets from taxpayers every DAY, they should put on a good show. Perhaps those millions disappear down that black hole? Now they say they are trying to figure out how to safely get through the Van Allen Belt. Didn’t we do that 12 times to the moon and back? And they lost or taped over the the telemetry tapes. Hmmmm. We are lied to about most everything – Sasquatch and SO many other things. Many folks waking up though. There’s the hope!

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