The event horizon telescope with ‘pioneering results from the Milky Way’ – is it a black hole?

At the center of the Milky Way lies the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. The first recording of her can be presented at a press conference today – with a live broadcast.

• The Event Horizon Telescope captured the first image of a black hole in 2019. Now the researchers behind the collaboration are announcing “groundbreaking results for the Milky Way.”
• Results will be shown from 3pm – first registration can be from Black hole To be at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
• This is amazing News ticker for New Horizons telescope show It is constantly updated.

+++ 2.25 pm: The Milky Way’s Discovery Event Horizon Telescope press conference begins at 3 p.m. There are many simultaneous press conferences around the world presenting the “groundbreaking” discovery at the same time.

Here you can follow the press conference from Garching near Munich live from 3 pm:

Update from Thursday, May 12, 1:00 p.m.: Today, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration will present “groundbreaking results for the Milky Way” at a press conference. It is not yet known exactly what it is. Experts assume that the first images of the black hole will be presented at the center of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A *). The press conference starts at 3pm – then you’ll see what it’s really about.

Event Horizon Telescope (EHT): First image of a black hole presented

First report from Wednesday, May 11: Garshing – When the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration held a press conference in April 2019, the participating researchers presented a groundbreaking scientific achievement: they achieved for the first time Black hole shadow picture Hence visual evidence of supermassive existence Black hole the introduction. The image went viral around the world and suddenly it caused a huge amount of interest in black holes. Now there is another one Invitation to attend a press conference for EHT, where “The Milky Way’s Pioneering Results” will be presented. Just like in 2019, there will be many press conferences around the world at the same time. Not much is known yet.

But in the scientific community, there is a guess as to what the EHT should offer this time: Is it the first recording or even a movie From Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way? It is possible – experts already in 2019 suspected that the image of Sagittarius A * will be presented. However, the researchers then provided an image of the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy.

Event Horizon Telescope: Did you catch the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?

But how can even the Event Horizon Telescope image a black hole? Supermassive black holes are at the center of most galaxies and are distinguished by one thing: they gobble up everything that gets too close to them. Once matter crosses the event horizon, it falls into a black hole from which nothing – not even light – comes out. Something that swallows light in itself is actually impossible to photograph. Moreover, black holes are far away – the black hole captured in 2019 is about 55 million light-years from Earth The black hole in the center of the Milky Way At a distance of about 26000 light years.

In order to continue imaging black holes, the EHT uses a special technology: the Very Long Fundamental Interferometry (VLBI). Several radio telescopes distributed around the world are synchronized and used simultaneously to observe a specific object. When the first image of the black hole was published, the participating researchers explained that they could read a newspaper in New York with the accuracy produced by their massive telescope extending over the Earth from Paris.

Event Horizon Telescope (EHT): How do you photograph a black hole swallowing light?

But that still doesn’t explain how researchers could photograph an object that swallows light. You have to know that supermassive black holes are mostly It is surrounded by what is known as an accumulator disk be. This consists of matter that has been attracted to the black hole but has not yet crossed the event horizon. This accretion disk surrounds the black hole, and the gas inside is hot and glowing — which is what researchers used for their purposes in 2019. Heino Falcke from EHT He explained this in 2019: “When a black hole plunges into a region as bright as a glowing gas disk, we would expect it to produce a dark, shadow-like region.”

And indeed: the Event Horizon Telescope was able to image the ring-like structure with a dark center – the shadow of the black hole. Eight telescopes took part in the observations at that time – they were in Hawaii, Mexico, Arizona, the Sierra Nevada, the Chilean Atacama Desert and even in Antarctica. These observations resulted in the production of petabytes of raw data processed by supercomputers, including those at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn.

Photographing a black hole was considered impossible a generation ago

“Breakthroughs in technology, communications between the world’s best radio observatories, and innovative algorithms have opened an entirely new window on black holes and the event horizon,” said EHT researcher Sheperd S.

“We have achieved what was thought impossible just a generation ago.”

Will the Event Horizon Telescope provide a view of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way this time around? It’s possible—but it’s also possible that the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration could have a completely different surprise to observers. (tab)