The Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy
Above: Sagittarius A, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way (EHT, 2022)
Astronomers have photographed the object that sits in the center of the Milky Way— a supermassive black hole. It's long been theorized that the stars near the center of the galaxy orbited a black hole, but this is the first piece of photographic evidence towards that hypothesis.
The object lies 27,000 light years away from Earth and was photographed using a team of high powered radio observatories around the globe. Though you can't see the black hole itself as no light can escape it, the ring of glowing gas which is present around a black hole is clearly visible in the photo.
This isn't the first time a black hole has been photographed either; back in 2019, the same team was able to get the first image of the cosmological phenomenon at the heart of another galaxy, M87. This photograph though, was much closer to Earth and the gas around the Milky Way black hole orbited it quite fast. M87's gas orbit took weeks, while the Milky Way's could be completed in minutes. This made the effort to get a clear photograph far more difficult.
Check out the statement from the Event Horizon Telescope team here!
Cool Things!
The Fish That Didn't Stay Extinct: The Story of the Coelacanth
Homo Erectus: the First European
Take a Leap this Leap Day!
Specimen Deep Dives
Crossing the Thames: the Many London Bridges
Where Did the Moon Come From?
Libyan Desert Glass: The Rock of God
Long Form Articles
How the Dinosaurs Got their Feathers
Paleoart: Bringing the Past to Life
