Picture of the invisible: First picture of black hole in the center of the Milky Way
Created: 05/12/2022, 16:37
By: Laura May
Researchers present the first image of a black hole in the center of our galaxy - a special telescope makes it possible to image the invisible.
Munich – The first image of a black hole was taken three years ago: this first image was already a scientific sensation.
At that time, the hole was outside of our galaxy, at the center of galaxy M87, some 55 million light-years away.
Now researchers have been able to capture the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way, taking the second-ever picture of the space phenomenon.
A certain peculiarity of the giant made completely new methods necessary.
Black holes are invisible.
So how did the astronomer manage to visualize the mysterious space at the center of our home galaxy?
The image presented on Thursday actually shows the surroundings of the supermassive black hole, because the objects themselves are inherently invisible.
Image of the black hole in the Milky Way.
© EHT/dpa
Black hole: Eight observatories and giant telescopes on four continents make it possible
The display was made possible by the "Event Horizon Telescope" (EHT).
The "Supertelescope" is an association of eight radio observatories on four continents.
A dark central region is seen surrounded by a bright ring structure.
The image of the mass monster at the heart of our galaxy is only the second image ever taken of a black hole.
It shows a dark central region surrounded by a bright ring structure.
The researchers report that the image of Sagittarius A* - the name of the black hole - is in good agreement with the predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity for a black hole with four million times the mass of our sun.
The hole is probably rotating.
Universe: "The object in the galactic center changes in a few minutes"
Although the Milky Way is much closer to Earth than Galaxy M87, the framework conditions were a technical challenge.
"The radiation from the black hole of M87 is constant for hours," explained Anton Zensus from the MPIfR in Bonn to the German Press Agency.
“The object in the galactic center, on the other hand, changes over the course of just a few minutes.
We therefore had to develop completely new methods for the evaluation.”
Astronomers believe that there is a black hole at the center of most galaxies in space.
Because of their extreme mass, black holes don't even let light escape, making them virtually invisible.
However, before being drawn into a black hole, matter heats up extremely and then glows brightly. This characteristic glow can be seen in the images in a reddish color.
