Accustomed to splendid images of planets and nebulae, we could find that of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way released Thursday a little dull.
And yet, beyond the scientific knowledge it brings, it is an incredible performance.
“It's like taking a picture of an orange on the Moon from Earth!
“, illustrates Eric Lagadec, astrophysicist at the Observatory of the Côte d'Azur (OCA).
Because Sagittarius A* is certainly a massive object, but dark and distant: it is located 26,000 light-years away, or 250,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers!
The light from the accretion disc that revolves around it and gives it the appearance of a donut must travel this distance to reach us.
A “path” strewn with pitfalls, since the centers of the galaxies are studded with dust.
These block visible light particles,
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