The first image of the black hole in the heart of the Milky Way has been presented at a press conference with the international consortium Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
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Scientists have long observed stars in orbit around something invisible, compact and massive in the center of our galaxy. There have been strong indications that the object, which goes by the name “Sagittarius A *”, is a black hole.
According to the researchers, the image presented on Thursday is the first direct visual proof that this is the case.
“We were floored by how well the size of the circle matched the predictions of Einstein’s general theory of relativity,” said EHT researcher Geoffrey Bower in a press release.
The black hole is 27,000 light-years from Earth and has a mass four million times that of the sun. The image was taken using eight synchronized radio telescopes worldwide – Event Horizon Telescope.
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