Scientists reveal the first image of the supermassive black hole in Milky Way Galaxy

Scientists reveal the first image of the supermassive black hole in Milky Way Galaxy. 

On Thursday, scientists revealed the first picture of the “gentle giant” hiding at the core of our Milky Way galaxy. 

It reveals a supermassive black hole that devours any matter that wanders inside its tremendous gravitational attraction.

The black hole, Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*, is just the second black hole ever photographed. 

The achievement was made by the same worldwide Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) group that, in 2019, presented the first-ever photo—this one from the center of a different galaxy.

At a press conference in Washington, University of Arizona astronomer Feryal zel welcomed “the first direct view of the gentle giant at the heart of our galaxy,” which showed a blazing red, yellow, and white ring encircling a darker center.

Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius “A”) has 4 million times the mass of our sun and is around 26,000 light-years away from Earth. Light travels 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km) in a year.

Black holes are enormously dense objects with such powerful gravity that not even light can escape, making them exceedingly difficult to see. 

The event horizon of a black hole is the point beyond which nothing – stars, planets, gas, dust, and all kinds of electromagnetic radiation – can escape.

A ring of light – super-heated disturbing matter and radiation circling at great speed near the event horizon – surrounding an area of blackness symbolizing the real black hole has been sought by project scientists. 

The shadow or silhouette of the black hole is what we call it.

“A brilliant ring surrounds the blackness in this photograph, indicating the shadow of the black hole,” zel stated. “The brilliant ring is light escaping from the heated gas whirling around the black hole. Light that comes too near to the black hole – close enough to be devoured – finally crosses its horizon, leaving only a dark abyss in its core.”

“In the last decade of recreating its surroundings, it turned out to be a nicer, more cooperative black hole than we had anticipated,” zel said. “Our black hole is our favorite.”

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with around 100 billion stars. It looks like a spinning pinwheel from above or below, with our sun in the center and Sagittarius A* on one of the spiral arms.