(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 12 - Photographed of the black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the closest, thanks to the international collaboration Event Horizon Telescope (Eht) and with the Italian contribution of the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf), Istituto National Nuclear Physics (Infn), Federico II University of Naples and Cagliari.
The image is the definitive proof that at the center of the Milky Way there is a black hole.
Published in 10 articles in The AstrophysicalJournal Letters, the result is announced worldwide starting from Germany, with the European Southern Observatory (Eso);
in Italy by Inaf, Infn and the two universities.
Three years after the first photo of a black hole, that of the M87 galaxy, the new image definitively confirms the existence of a black hole at the center of our galaxy: "an overwhelming proof", as the researchers defined it at the press conference organized in Rome. : Ciriaco Goddi of the University of Cagliari, Inaf and Infn, Elisabetta Liuzzo NicolaMarchili and Kazi Rygl, all three of INAF and, in connection, Mariafelicia De Laurentis of Federico II University of Naples and Infn, and Rocco Lico of Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía eInaf .
Also in this historical shot, the result of the work of more than 300 researchers from 80 institutes around the world who together form the Eht Collaboration, the black hole is not visible directly because it does not emit light: a thick ring of bright gas is seen,
An "extraordinary" result, which demonstrates how important international collaboration in the scientific field is and how important it is for Italy to be part of it: this is how the Minister of University and Research, Maria CristinaMessa, commented on the photo.
"It is an extraordinary result of which she brought her - she said - we will be able to really realize only with time".
(HANDLE).
