Say cheese, M87!

NASA has now imaged a black hole through multiple telescopes of M87 in the middle of our galaxy. In addition to showing a ring of radiation around a darker disk, the image contained three brighter knots.

“We see knots in all the images we created,” scientists state, “but each had the knots in different places.”

The averaged knots that appear in the image are probably artifacts of the interferometry technique used by the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope).

The first hints of this black hole were back in the 1970s. There are only certain telescopes that can see this black hole, so that is one reason why it took some time to find it.

“Today, right this moment, we have direct evidence that this object is a black hole,” said Sara Issaoun, one of the scientists of the EHT, “We’ve been working on this for so long, every once in a while, you have to pinch yourself and remember that this is the black hole at the center of our Universe.”

Their discovery helps us know what other things may be out there too. Some scientists think that it isn’t just one black hole as there could be multiple. But don’t worry because if this black hole does reach us, it won’t be for a very long time. Also, the project’s next thing wants to do is to make a movie about the black hole to learn more about its physical properties. We hope that eventually, we can use what we know and then see if there are more out in space.