The picture shows a halo of dust and gas, tracing the outline of a colossal black hole, at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, 55m light years from Earth.
The breakthrough image was captured by the Event Horizon telescope (EHT), a network of eight radio telescopes spanning locations from Antarctica to Spain and Chile, in an effort involving more than 200 scientists.
And two years in the making.
Quote:
The collaboration is still working on producing an image of the Milky Way’s black hole. “We hope to get that very soon...”
A small fleet of space telescopes could be making observations like this in weeks. Instead we have swarms of satellites peeking into our neighbours' back yards. Dangerous back yards perhaps but still, a little more looking outward might help us get perspective on our existence.
And yeah, I know the center of a galaxy isn't a star.
SlyFoxx on 11/4/2019 at 12:22 We might not see another for 3,000,000 years.