For decades,
astronomers believed that super-massive black holes exist at the very center of
massive galaxies. So far, given their nature, all attempts to observe and study
them has been confined to indirect methods. Now the history has been made on
April 12th, 2017, changing all that, when an international team of astronomers
captured the first-ever image of Sagittarius A*.
Artist's
Illustration of Sagittarius A*
In order to
achieve this astronomers used a series of telescopes around the globe, collectively
known as Event Horizon telescope (EHT). Whereby widely-space radio dishes from
across the globe are connected into an Earth-sized virtual telescope, is known
as Very LongBaseline Interferometry (VLBI).
Simulated
view of a black hole. Credit: Bronzwaer/Davelaar/Moscibrodzka/Falcke/Radboud
University
With the
help of Event Horizon telescope scientists were able to visualize the
mysterious region around this massive black hole from which matter and energy
cannot escape - i.e. the event horizon. This was also the most extreme test of
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity ever attempted.
The Event
Horizon Telescope started studying our galaxy’s central Black hole, located
about 25,000 light years from Earth, in 2006. With help of data obtained by EHT
astronomers were able to determine whether or not black holes are surrounded by
an orbital region from which nothing can escape (which is predicted by General
Relativity).
Michael
Bremer who is an astronomer at International Research Institute for Radio
Astronomy (IRAM) and also a project manager for the Event Horizon Telescope,
said:
Sagittarius
A* seen in radio. This is one of the most amazing images ever taken of a Black
HoleImage credit: Farhad Zadeh, VLA, NRAO, APOD
“Instead of
building a telescope so big that it would probably collapse under its own
weight, we combined eight observatories like the pieces of a giant mirror. This
gave us a virtual telescope as big as Earth—about 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles)
is diameter.”
You can read
about the more technical stuff, that how astronomers used EHT to capture the
first image of the Black Hole here. An astronomer from Radbound University who
now chairs the Scientific Council of EHT explained in an EHT press release:
“It is the challenge of doing something, that has never been attempted before. It is the start of an adventurous journey towards a black hole… However, I think we need more observation campaigns and eventually more telescopes in the network to make a really good image.”
Combined
image of Sagittarius A* shown in x-ray (blue) and infrared (red), delivered by
the Chandra Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: X-ray:
NASA/UMass/D.Wang et al., IR: NASA/STScI
With time,
the further study of black holes will allow us to finally determine how gravity
and the other essential forces of the Universe interact. At long last, we will
be able to understand all of existence as a single, unified equation!
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