The first photograph ever of a black hole has been revealed to the public. Shep Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and Center for Astrophysics, revealed the first glimpse of the black hole at the special conference broadcast by the National Science Foundation (NSF), United States of America. The photograph, which is unconceivably and achingly beautiful and enigmatic, shows mankind's first glimpse of a supermassive black hole.
The black hole in question here is the M87 supermassive black hole, which is at the very centre of the M87 galaxy, far away from Earth. The photograph of the black hole was captured through the EHT, which is in essence a collaboration of multiple observatory telescopes placed across the Earth. This essentially uses the power of eight radio telescopes, along with very long baseline interferometry (VLB), in order to observe the phenomena that has been represented in artist illustrations, multiple times. The NSF has also stated that the image shows the black hole shadow, which has already been explained as very difficult to capture.
In the photograph shared, the final photon layer is visible. A black hole is a gigantic supermass of gravitational forces, and is extremely difficult to observe owing to the distance, the forces and the rare spectra that it generates. The NSF has broadcast its announcement on the internet, giving a detailed explanation of the technology and science that helped bring about the remarkable observation. The supermassive black hole announcement marks a great achievement for mankind, and is believed to be capable of helping us understand one of the most enigmatic objects in deep, outer space.
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