April 28th came a somewhat cryptic advertising from European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Event Horizon Telescope Project (EHT). It promises that “groundbreaking” discoveries from the Milky Way will be presented next Thursday at ESO’s headquarters in Munich.
What the revelation is explicitly about, the announcement gives few details about.
But considering which organizations are involved, there are expectations that it will be about the supermassive black hole at the center of our own galaxy.
Hunting for black holes
THAT is an international organization consisting of more than a dozen member countries and has three large observatories in Chile, where the starry sky is one of the darkest and clearest on Earth.
ESO: ALMA Observatory on the Chajnantor Plateau, 5000 meters above sea level in the Chilean Andes. Photo: Clem & Adri Bacri-Normier / Wings for Science / ESO
sea view
Event Horizon TelescopeThe project consists of a worldwide network of radio telescopes that work together to study black holes. These are mainly the supermassive, black holes in the center of the distant galaxy Messier 87 and in our own Milky Way.
Black holes are a designation in areas of space where the gravitational forces are so strong that nothing can escape, not even light, it appears Large Norwegian encyclopedia.
A black hole is formed by a body, such as a large star, collapsing in a collapse so that all the mass is gathered practically in one point.
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First picture of black hole
In the past, black holes have only been illustrated with drawings of what NASA thinks they look like. But in 2019, the researchers managed to come up with the first image of a black holethanks to Event Horizon.
BLACK HOLE: In 2019, the first actual photograph of the space phenomenon black hole was presented. Photo: National Science Foundation
sea view
– This is the strongest proof we have that there are black holes. Of all the great discoveries, this is just the beginning, said Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope, according to CNN.
The image presented in 2019, which shows the supermassive hole in the center of the galaxy M87, is not a picture of the hole itself. What is shown is glowing gas around the hole.
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Jessica Dempsey, one of the researchers behind the breakthrough, said she thought the luminous ring was reminiscent of Sauron’s eye from the “Lord of the Rings” movies.
– We have been looking for this for a long time. We have come closer and closer with better technology, said Dempsey, who is affiliated with the East Asian Observatory in Hawaii.
