A Sight Through Darkness: The First Real Image of a Black Hole
Are Black holes real or not? That isn’t the question anymore. Since Einstein's theory of General Relativity predicted their existence in 1915 and their discovery in 1971, we’ve been dying to see one ever since.
Many predicted what a black hole could look like and tried to visualize it in the best possible ways. And to be honest many of them succeeded in doing so. Take for example Christopher Nolan who did a masterful work in his 2014 sci-fi masterpiece “Interstellar”, he was the closest one to interpret the visuals of a black hole.
However, we’ve never before had the chance to see the image of a real black hole in our universe, it was just considered science fiction for us, or a fantasy. Until something magnificent happened and changed all of this.
On April 10, 2019, astronomers finally captured the first real photo of a black hole. The image was captured using a network of radios antennas known as the Event Horizon Telescope. Apart from the blurriness in the photo, it looks exquisitely beautiful and a lot of people on social media have literally cried when they laid their eyes on it. It’s just unlike anything else humankind has ever witnessed.
Why it is considered a breakthrough
In order to appreciate it, you have to know what exactly a black hole is, which is a vast topic full of theories and a confusing Spacetime model. But jumping ahead all of that, a black hole is simply an area in Spacetime that has incredibly strong gravitational effects, far beyond what you can think of. It literally absorbs everything that comes near or passes by it, even the light.
A black hole can expand and grow in mass by absorbing things, and by things we mean “gas, dust, planets, stars, and light”, but the real reason for its huge depth is still unknown. But it is believed that an incredibly heavy object has been absorbed into it, which caused it to expand that much.
So, can you imagine that something so mysterious, exotic and frightening at the same time, was finally shown to the whole world and available to everyone on the internet? And above all it was captured by us, humans. I mean, who thought we would make it this far? Only 170 years ago, we invented the very basic telephone and today we have a picture of a real black hole on our smartphones. It makes you proud of what we could achieve, the potential that lies inside us is limitless.
Many predicted what a black hole could look like and tried to visualize it in the best possible ways. And to be honest many of them succeeded in doing so. Take for example Christopher Nolan who did a masterful work in his 2014 sci-fi masterpiece “Interstellar”, he was the closest one to interpret the visuals of a black hole.
However, we’ve never before had the chance to see the image of a real black hole in our universe, it was just considered science fiction for us, or a fantasy. Until something magnificent happened and changed all of this.
On April 10, 2019, astronomers finally captured the first real photo of a black hole. The image was captured using a network of radios antennas known as the Event Horizon Telescope. Apart from the blurriness in the photo, it looks exquisitely beautiful and a lot of people on social media have literally cried when they laid their eyes on it. It’s just unlike anything else humankind has ever witnessed.
Why it is considered a breakthrough
In order to appreciate it, you have to know what exactly a black hole is, which is a vast topic full of theories and a confusing Spacetime model. But jumping ahead all of that, a black hole is simply an area in Spacetime that has incredibly strong gravitational effects, far beyond what you can think of. It literally absorbs everything that comes near or passes by it, even the light.
A black hole can expand and grow in mass by absorbing things, and by things we mean “gas, dust, planets, stars, and light”, but the real reason for its huge depth is still unknown. But it is believed that an incredibly heavy object has been absorbed into it, which caused it to expand that much.
So, can you imagine that something so mysterious, exotic and frightening at the same time, was finally shown to the whole world and available to everyone on the internet? And above all it was captured by us, humans. I mean, who thought we would make it this far? Only 170 years ago, we invented the very basic telephone and today we have a picture of a real black hole on our smartphones. It makes you proud of what we could achieve, the potential that lies inside us is limitless.
How far away is the black hole?
The black hole for which the image was captured is located inside a galaxy called Messier 87, and it is 55 million years away from us, so don’t worry you won’t get sucked into the black hole while you’re lying on your couch watching TV in peace. Nonetheless, the black hole is huge, it’s billions of times larger than the sun.
Now, here’s the nice catch, considering the distance between us and the black hole, and its vast size, the picture we’re looking at is actually how the black hole looked 2 years ago! Yes, as twisted as it is, it’s undeniably true.
The great breakthrough
One single image, made the whole world speak. It’s indeed not only a breakthrough but also one of the biggest discoveries in the history of mankind. It makes you think about how science is greater than we can ever imagine, and that no matter what year we are in, science will always bring us new discoveries, there will always be many things left for us to imagine, things we can only dream of.
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Ahmed is a content creator who loves working on exotic topics and adding his own perspective and view on it. He loves film-making and dreams about going to Hollywood one day. Traveling is an essential part of his life and he's up for any adventure that comes in his way. Whether it's writing scripts, shooting a film or composing a soundtrack, Ahmed is able to visualize his thoughts through these three talents.