Astronomers reveal first image of ‘gentle giant’ black hole at center of Milky WayBy Joshua Rhett Miller
May 12, 2022
Astronomers on Thursday gave the world the first glimpse of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy – some 27,000 light years away from Earth.
The otherworldly image of the black hole – Sagittarius A* – is just the second such photo to ever be produced, coming three years after the international Event Horizon Telescope collaboration unveiled the first view of a black hole at the center of a far-distant galaxy.
“We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity,” EHT scientist Geoffrey Bower said in a statement announcing the historic view of the gentle giant 4 million times as massive as the sun.
The “unprecedented” look at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains at least 100 billion stars, has greatly improved astronomers’ understanding of how giant black holes interact with their surroundings, Bower said.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/05/12/image-of-gentle-giant-black-hole-at-milky-ways-center/
