For years scientists have searched the recesses of space there in the darkness
they found something huge dense and invisible slinging stars at a whopping 240 000 kilometers
per second or eight percent of the speed of light they were unable to capture any image of the mass
left to observe the effects it was having on its surroundings scientists could only make
guesses at the cost well we have long theorized that it could be a black hole we can now put our
suspicions to rest we have obtained photographic proof of what is at the center of our galaxy
welcome the Factnomenal and watch as this black pearl is unveiled to the world for the first time
the event horizon telescope eht captured the first image of this supermassive black hole at the
center of the milky way found in 1974 and named sagittarius a star it is only the second ever
black hole to be photographed the unique device that did this has also been used to photograph the
distant messier 87 galaxy's own black hole m87 in 2019 in order to capture our goliath in action the
scientific community combined the efforts of more than 300 researchers from 80 different institutes
they have worked together to create the event horizon telescope eht collaboration
in an amazing alliance eight pre-existing radio observatories around the world
worked collaboratively to gaze at a precisely calculated location each organization collected
data separately and sent it physically from person to person to be analyzed linked together across
the globe this daisy chain of radio dishes collectively creates an earth-sized telescope
john carlstrom the professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university of chicago explains
that we want to build a telescope the size of the earth but we don't have to actually cover all the
earth we just need to have pieces of the telescope that spread out over the size of the earth this
revolutionary system of linked devices has created an entirely new apparatus the event horizon
telescope offers some of the highest possible resolutions available from the earth's surface
thus bringing extreme detail and visibility to previously concealed parts of our galaxy
all of this work was being done to photograph the invisible anomaly sitting roughly 25 000
light years away our little pearl was just waiting for its moment to shine but it wasn't an easy task
it was the equivalent of attempting to take a picture of a donut on the moon as we had
to filter through billions of stars to get to it this vast network of people equipment
and organizations are all working together to bring these data drawn images to the public
there are several subdivisions of the eht all of which have different assignments
image interpretation and connecting different arrays together to work as a single eye
are just a few of them every observatory has its own tasks to complete in order to contribute
to the greater project there are even branches that are producing simulations of black holes to
compare with real-time observations alongside their separate duties each telescope has an
observation period for multiple nights in a row they gaze for hours at sajstar
this is the same technique used by photographers to take bright pictures of the night sky
scientists are essentially utilizing the long exposure setting on their cameras
the lens is exposed to the light of stars and the longer it's exposed the more light it absorbs
because of this process the picture that is produced is much brighter
another analogy used to explain the imaging process is one of taking a time-lapse photo
of a mountain peak while filming this peak for the majority of the day it is clear to the camera lens
but there are periods of time in which it is obscured by clouds combining all the hours of
photos together on average there will be nothing obstructing the mountain and you will have a clear
image of it during this observation period the telescopes are pointed at a precise location to
capture radio waves at 1.3 millimeters these are the waves being emitted by sage star from
deep space and the telescopes on the earth's surface are able to collect and record the data
the setup of the telescopes is where the magic happens since the eht is a global network of
equipment with bases located in several different countries there is a lot of space between the
telescopes this is very intentional because the farther the first telescope is from its partner
the longer the baseline the two are allowed to form with the longer baselines scientists are able
to resolve the small details of images to a higher quality because of the precise nature of these
instruments the data taken in different time zones and locations needs to be correctly calibrated in
order to combine the telescope's data and create an image there have to be very accurate atomic
clocks on the telescopes this means the exact time location and position of the waves are
recorded in the data so if there are different angles in the waves once it reaches earth
it can be accounted for in the post-processing what the scientists have done is collect thousands
of images of saj star and through a process in which they are classified and averaged the final
result is a clear image of our own eye of sauron professor kallstrom explains we take the signals
record them in real time an enormous data rate and then we bring all that together and correlate it
or combine it analyze it together as if we're observing with one big telescope all at once
luciano retzola of the getsa institute in frankfurt germany studied and provided a
variety of images of sajstar surprisingly they show the whole changing rapidly its appearance
changes significantly in a span of just minutes compared to the only other black hole we have
photographed before black hole m87 star the supermassive black hole m87 star is actually
consuming matter from its accretion disk at a very active pace compared to our galaxy's black hole
that said since it is 1 000 times bigger than sanjay's star it is also moving at a much slower
pace if our black hole was a person its appetite would be almost nil compared to that of m87 star
consuming the equivalent of just one grain of rice every million years
because of the difference in its size m87 star would change visually over the span of days
unlike sage star which does so in far less time chi kwan c k chen from stewart observatory and
the department of astronomy and the data science institute at the university of arizona compared
trying to get a clear photo of sanjay starr to that of getting one of a puppy chasing its tail
scientists have discovered that sag a star's photographs are similar to m87 stars but with
different and inconsistent shapes due to the vast contrast in size this is because the gas in the
vicinity of the black hole moves nearly as fast as light and although with a bigger galaxy like m87
star it could take up to weeks for the material to orbit with sajstar it can orbit in minutes
even though they are unable to photograph the black hole itself
they were able to calculate what was happening immediately around it in its simplest form the
black hole's gravitational pull is so strong that it doesn't even allow light to escape its grasp
this makes them essentially invisible what scientists are able to capture
was the central region known as the shadow surrounded by a bright ring-like structure
this ring is created by the schwarzschild radius which is the distance in which light
or material will be pulled into the black hole we see the radiation around the hole that is a
consistent distance away and the images we capture allow us to gaze into the emptiness of the black
hole these photographs offer great insight into how these supermassive black holes may interact
with the surrounding material as the saj star's mass is one million times the mass of our sun
but all located in one single point it has a great effect on the surrounding space material of note
the similarity in the photos between m87 star and sag a star lends credibility to the accuracy of
einstein's theory of general relativity this news has scientists very optimistic about future fights
for five years scientists employed supercomputers to integrate their data and analyze it
throughout this process the event horizon telescope utilizes both theoretical and simulation
studies to better understand our own universe this generated an extraordinary collection of
simulated black holes that they are then able to compare with the observations in the field data
these exciting images have been processed and put together from data that was gathered in 2017
but since then there have been two more observation periods performed
according to researcher lea medeiros from the institute for advanced study in new jersey
it could be years before the data taken in 2018 and 2022 is released to the public what
amazing and unique discoveries are you excited for tell us down below and don't forget to like and
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