Years after relying on computer-generated images of black holes, scientists have released the first ever picture of an actual huge black hole located millions of light years away.
Yesterday, astronomers unveiled the first ever picture captured of a supermassive black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope. The black hole is located in the Messier 87 galaxy, which is about 55 million light years away.
Engadget explained, the image shows the ‘shadow’ created as the telescope bends and sucks in light. The extremely large black hole has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. EHT Director Shep Doeleman said, “We’ve exposed part of the universe that was invisible to us before.”
The image was obviously not an easy one to capture, it required connecting eight existing high-altitude telescopes around the world to reach an angular resolution high enough to capture the object at an extreme distance – the Event Horizon is 24.9 billion miles across the celestial body.
The picture got everyone across the world super excited about the discovery. People from all across the world poured in their enthusiastic reactions on social media site Twitter.
Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed.#BlackHole #EHTBlackHole #BlackHoles #KatieBouman #NASA pic.twitter.com/q3GvJxVg9u
— Katie Bouman (@DrKatieBo) April 11, 2019
T 3139 - CONTD 2 : THE BLACK HOLE ..
so limited in comparative presence, so overpoweringly pressured in believing and thinking its outcomes , when truly the galaxies of our behavioural attitude are not even a speck in the presence of these beyond and heavenly destinations .. pic.twitter.com/mNbkCTpbvr
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 11, 2019
T 3139 - THE BLACK HOLE .. !!
300 million trillion miles away !
3.3 million times the size of the Earth ..
we live in such hemispheres .. of such magnitude .. and we operate among us with vituperation and its poverty driven drivel .. pic.twitter.com/azrgkp9W5J
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 11, 2019
SCIENTISTS: “We’ve produced the first-ever image of a supermassive Black Hole, 55-million light years away”
RESPONSE: “Oooh!”
SCIENTISTS: “We’ve concluded that humans are catastrophically warming Earth”
RESPONSE: “That conflicts with what I want to be true, so it must be false”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 10, 2019
#BlackHole #?????_?????? first image of a black hole pic.twitter.com/hNEB338HrJ
— AB27 (@27_XVII) April 11, 2019
Yesterday, the first ever image of the black hole was released. This was a milestone in the field of astrophysics particularly because light which crosses the event horizone is lost forever because of it's strong gravitational force.
LOCATION- Galaxy M87:,-)
#BlackHole #Science pic.twitter.com/BnOoxG26m9
— yogesh agarwal (@yyogesh_) April 11, 2019
Black Hole photo! The most important click of the century pic.twitter.com/klykrCJTeF
— ??TTEO (@mttzmb) April 11, 2019
thought about how Stephen Hawking aint alive to see the pictures of the black hole and i jus started cryin
— BILL NYE THO (@Bill_Nye_Tho) April 10, 2019
Today this planet's inhabitants experienced together what it feels like when inspiring history is made before our eyes. Quite exciting if you ask me! How cool. #blackholeimage #blackhole pic.twitter.com/25qW0AQ1da
— Giorgio A. Tsoukalos (@Tsoukalos) April 11, 2019
This is the first real picture of a black hole. What you’re seeing causes galaxies to form, and has such a vicious gravitational pull that it warps space, time, and imprisons light.
Imagine how powerful it’s Creator must be pic.twitter.com/p1DE1uJVfO
— Omar - The Rational Theist (@MidbellSoul) April 10, 2019
Stephen Hawking isn’t alive to see the very first black hole photo.
— Shower Thoughts (@TheWeirdWorld) April 10, 2019
1961- America's 1st successful space launch.
1969 - 1st man on the moon.
2019 - First picture of a blackhole
All brought to you by #WomenInSTEM#TheFutureIsFemale pic.twitter.com/iOyS5ViCf3
— Melissa (@MissLissaEmm) April 11, 2019