User:Ixfd64/Astronomers create first image of supermassive black hole at Milky Way's center

Thursday, May 12, 2022



Astronomers announced Thursday they had taken the first-ever image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

The black hole is known as (abbreviated Sgr A*) and estimated to be four million times the. Researchers used to combine data from an array of  from around the world, resulting in the  (EHT) that acts as an Earth-sized radio telescope. The collaboration started in 2009 with the goal of imaging Sgr A* and the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

The team released an image of M87's black hole, located at a distance of about 55 million light-years, in April 2019. Although Sgr A* is much closer to Earth at 26,000 light-years, processing the data took longer due to Sgr A* being smaller than M87 and matter orbiting Sgr A* more quickly. Computer scientist stated that Sgr A* changes "minute to minute" for this reason. EHT scientist Chi-kwan Chan compared imaging Sgr A* to taking "a clear picture of a puppy quickly chasing its tail."

One of the team's next goals is to study the possible breakdown of in regions near black holes. Bouman stated that it also expects to determine the nature of the three "knots" in the image. She added that the team hopes to eventually make videos of the black holes as they change over time, but currently lacks the data to do so.