Has the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole been photographed?

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is preparing to make a landmark announcement in the coming days. he has informed A global conference was held on May 12, where the results of new developments obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, which in 2019 were responsible for the first direct image of a black hole, will be presented. It is believed that it can be announced The first picture of arc A*the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.

an image of something “invisible”

If scientists can produce a true picture of the event horizon of Sagittarius A*, then before and after astronomy will be determined: this would be a feat because black holes are practically “invisible”, as They absorb all the electromagnetic radiation around them. according to Article – Commodity Published in Science Alert, the announcement will be related to this achievement: To date, there are only computer simulations and animations of a supermassive black hole.

What can be visualized from bow A* is event horizon, also known as the event horizon: it’s essentially the “blueprint” of a black hole, a space where light cannot escape the gravitational forces of a massive structure. In general relativity, this concept is defined as the “limit” of space-time, in which events on one side of it cannot affect an observer located on the other side.

First direct image of a black hole Acquired in 2019 (see picture). It is located in the middle of Galaxy M87It is located 53.49 million light-years from Earth, and has a mass 6.5 billion times greater than our Sun. The radius of the event horizon that can be recorded is about 20 billion km. When they obtained the image, the specialists compared it to observing an object 1 millimeter in size from a distance of 13,000 kilometers.

He rules in the center of the Milky Way

however, Sagittarius A* It is noticeably smaller than the black hole imaged in 2019, although at the same time it is nasty: it is 4.3 million times larger than the Sun. This will make the picture more complicated, although it is well worth the effort: a Research from the US National Science Foundation concluded earlier this year that Sagittarius A* focuses on 99.9% of the mass in the center of the Milky Waywhich indicates that its impact on galactic processes may be greater than was thought until today.

In that study, astronomers note that the motion of the stars shows that the mass in the galactic center is made up almost entirely of matter Sagittarius A*, which leaves little room for stars, other black holes, interstellar gas and dust, or dark matter. In other words, a supermassive black hole is the absolute king in this sector of the Milky Way and maintains a gravity pull This seems to partly determine the fate of the galaxy.

Sagittarius A* is located about 25,640 light-years from Earth, near the edge of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio. Seemingly supermassive black holes They will be located at the centers of most spiral and elliptical galaxies. In 2020, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Geis were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for proving that arc A* is super massive compact objectfeatures for which a black hole is the only currently known explanation.