The first image of our galaxy's black hole has been captured

An international team of researchers has captured the first historical image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This result constitutes overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and provides valuable clues about the workings of these giants, which are believed to reside at the center of most galaxies. The image was obtained by a global research team, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations with a worldwide network of radio telescopes, which functions as a virtual Earth-sized telescope. . The EHT team's results are published today, Thursday, May 12, in a special edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

 The image represents a long-awaited glimpse of the huge object that sits at the center of our galaxy. Previous research had detected stars orbiting an invisible, compact and very massive object at the center of the Milky Way, suggesting that this object – known as Sagittarius A* (named Sagittarius A star or Sgr A*) – is a hole black. The image released today provides the first direct visual evidence of this.

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