By on • ( Leave a comment )

First-ever picture of a black hole unveiled

Using a telescope the size of the planet, astronomers have captured the first image of this space oddity. Here’s why that matters. More than 50 million light-years away, in the heart of a giant elliptical galaxy called Messier 87; a gargantuan beast is devouring anything that strays too near. Stars, planets, gas, and dust—not even light escapes the monster’s grasp once it crosses a threshold called the event horizon. Today, scientists unveiled an image of that object, a supermassive black hole containing the same mass as 6.5 billion suns. Resembling a circular void surrounded by a lopsided ring of light, this landmark image is the world’s first glimpse of a black hole’s silhouette, a picture that creeps right up to the inescapable edge of the black hole’s maw.

The new image is the stunning achievement of the Event Horizon Telescope project, a global collaboration of more than 200 scientists using an array of observatories scattered around the world, from Hawaii to the South Pole. Combined, this array acts like a telescope the size of Earth, and it was able to collect more than a petabyte of data while staring at M87’s black hole in April 2017. It then took two years for scientists to assemble the mugshot.

Before now, humans could only see indirect evidence that black holes even existed by looking for stars that seemed to orbit bizarre objects, by capturing radiation from the superheated matter swirling into them, or by seeing the extremely energetic jets of particles launched from their tumultuous environments.

One of the chief takeaways is a more direct calculation of the black hole’s mass, which tracks closely with estimates derived from the motion of orbiting stars. The data also offer some hints about how some supermassive black holes manage to unleash gargantuan jets of particles traveling at near light-speed.

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/first-picture-black-hole-revealed-m87-event-horizon-telescope-astrophysics/

Image Source : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/astronomers-capture-first-images-supermassive-black-hole-180971927/




    • Categories: Uncategorized

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


    Terms & Conditions:

    1) Any sort of abusive dialect won't go on without serious consequences onto this blog.

    2) No political issues are to be discussed about on this blog, recalling the fundamental theme.

    3) Be extremely abstract to the points; don't get strayed by some unimportant variables.

    4) This blog is our very own perception, what we feel and what we need to express. It doesn't decide any legitimate speculation or any scientific articulations, nor does it support them.

    5) View of remarks isn't our commitment.

    6) Genuinity is furthermore not our commitment.

    7) The blog's content isn't a spam, isn't machine-or haphazardly produced, and does not contain deceptive or undesirable business content intended to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to facilitate unlawful acts, (for example, phishing) or deceive beneficiaries with regards to the wellspring of the material, (for example, parodying).

    8) You may not modify copy, publish, display, transmit, adjust or in any capacity misuse the content of the Site. All rights, including copyright and trademark, in this site are possessed by or authorized to Nanoland Limited. Only if you obtain prior written consent from us and from all other entities with an interest in the relevant intellectual property may you publish, display or commercially exploit any material from the Site.

    9) You concur not to transmit or generally make accessible any content that is false, destructive, debilitating, damaging, convoluted, defamatory, derogatory, demonizing (counting deriding of the Site), revolting, vulgar or that advances brutality, racial disdain, terrorism or illicit acts, or is generally offensive (as controlled by us in our sole prudence).

    10) You concur not to transmit or generally make accessible through the Site any personal advertising, junk mail, spam, junk letters, fraudulent business models or offer available to be purchased of any products or administrations, aside from in regions particularly assigned for such purposes.