Unlike smaller black holes that come from
collapsed stars, supermassive black holes are
mysterious in origin. Situated at the center of
most galaxies, including ours, they are so dense
that nothing, not even light, can escape their
gravitational pull. This one’s “event horizon” —
the precipice, or point of no return, where light
and matter begin to fall inexorably into the hole
— is as big as our entire solar system.
Three years ago, scientists using an
extraordinarily sensitive observing system
heard the sound of two much smaller black
holes merging to create a gravitational wave,
as Albert Einstein predicted. The new image,
published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
and announced around the world, adds light to
that sound.
Outside scientists suggested the achievement
could be worthy of a Nobel Prize, just like the
gravitational wave discovery.
The image helps confirm Einstein’s general
theory of relativity, Dempsey said. Einstein a
century ago even predicted the symmetrical
shape that scientists just found.
The black hole depicted is about 6 billion times the
mass of our sun and is in a galaxy called M87 that
is about 53 million light years from Earth. One light
year is 5.9 trillion miles, or 9.5 trillion kilometers.
While much of the matter around a black hole
gets sucked into the vortex, never to be seen
again, the new picture captures gas and dust that
are lucky to be circling just far enough to be safe
and to be seen millions of years later on Earth.
The measurements were taken at a wavelength
the human eye cannot see, so the astronomers
added color to the image, choosing gold and