Astronomers hypothesize that new knowledge about black holes may have to wait until 2030, when/if NASA’s gravitational wave detector, LISA, blasts off into space.
The Event Horizon Telescope may be thinking about something else. They held a press conference on Thursday and speculation was rife about what that might mean.
That event horizon telescope is a global network of synchronized radio dishes operating as a giant telescope to enhance the study of general relativity in strong field systems and three years ago produced the first images of a black hole – nothingness surrounded by a fiery ring of light at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 at the center of the Virgo galaxy. A year ago, they photographed the heart of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A.
Credits: NRAO/AUI/NSF and NE Kassem, Naval Research Laboratory.
On May 12, 2022, they intend to announce the results of the Milky Way. Does this mean that the project has now imaged Sgr A*, the black hole we orbit?
Sgr A*, as you might guess, is located in the constellation Sagittarius (so no matter what astrological sign you think you’re in, you’re Sagittarius) but we can’t ‘see’ it because cosmic dust is being created above the arms of the Milky Way. Magic. helix. Instead, it’s inferred using data from experiments like the Very Large Telescope in Chile, which thanks to activists in Hawaii is the new global home of astronomy, and things like the disappearance of the G2 gas cloud.
The Event Horizon project doesn’t require optical wavelengths, so we might get a glimpse of what could be the cosmic heart of mankind 26,000 light-years away, but at 4 million times the mass of our sun… let’s just hope it’s not the cosmic heart of humanity. The house of nuclear chaos, Azathoth, from those stories Cthulhu.
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