First image of our black hole (with wider background)

Eso_eso2208-eht-mwh_1024

eso_eso2208-eht-mwh May 12th, 2022

Credit: EHT Collaboration

This is the first image of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, with an added black background to fit wider screens. It’s the first direct visual evidence of the presence of this black hole. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which linked together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope. The telescope is named after the event horizon, the boundary of the black hole beyond which no light can escape.   Although we cannot see the event horizon itself, because it cannot emit light, glowing gas orbiting around the black hole reveals a telltale signature: a dark central region (called a shadow) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun. The image of the Sgr A* black hole is an average of the different images the EHT Collaboration has extracted from its 2017 observations.  In addition to other facilities, the EHT network of radio observatories that made this image possible includes the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) in the Atacama Desert in Chile, co-owned and co-operated by ESO is a partner on behalf of its member states in Europe.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2208-eht-mwh/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Black hole
Subject - Milky Way
Galaxy > Component > Central Black Hole
Eso_eso2208-eht-mwh_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 45m 40.0s
DEC = -29° 0’ 28.2”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
0.0 x 0.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Event Horizon Telescope (None) Millimeter (None) 1.3 mm
Spectrum_ir1
Orange
Eso_eso2208-eht-mwh_1280
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ID
eso2208-eht-mwh
Subject Category
B.5.4.6  
Subject Name
Black hole
Credits
EHT Collaboration
Release Date
2022-05-12T15:07:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2208-eht-mwh/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Event Horizon Telescope
Instrument
None
Color Assignment
Orange
Band
Millimeter
Bandpass
None
Central Wavelength
1300000
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
266.416815837, -29.0078430557
Reference Dimension
318.6, 180.0
Reference Pixel
159.8, 90.25
Scale
-1.94444444444e-10, 1.94444444444e-10
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso2208-eht-mwh
Metadata Date
2022-04-19T17:19:06+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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