On April 10th the first ever picture of a black hole was released by scientists using the Event Horizon Telescope. The picture, as part of a global project of more than 200 scientists, was taken by an array of observatories dispersed all around the world.

The picture of the black hole was from the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy. The project started in April 2017, where it took years to piece together the final picture of this massive black hole. The estimated mass of the black hole is roughly the same amount of 6.5 billion suns.

Before this picture was taken scientists weren’t able to directly see black holes. The only way we knew they existed was by stars, planets, and other gases strangely orbiting unusual objects. The way scientists captured the picture will help them take another image of the nearest black hole in our galaxy Sagittarius A, which only has a mass of 4 billion suns, which is significantly smaller than the black hole in M87.

This is a massive discovery for the scientific community, especially in proving Einstein’s theory of general relativity which says that black holes should exist. Along with this discovery, we will be able to find more black holes throughout our galaxy and possibly the known universe.

For more visit: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/first-picture-black-hole-revealed-m87-event-horizon-telescope-astrophysics/