Marking a milestone in astrophysics - the first-ever photo of a black hole was released from a research conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project.
a. Supernova
b. Black Hole
c. Birth of a Star
d. Asteroid Collision
Details:
- The photo of the black hole was taken using a global network of telescopes to gain insight into celestial objects with gravitational fields so strong no matter or light can escape.
- The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration begun in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole using a global network of Earth-based telescopes.
- The announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.
About the image:
- The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster.
- This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth.
What are Black Holes?
- Black holes, phenomenally dense celestial entities, are extraordinarily difficult to observe despite their great mass.
- A black hole's event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything - stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation - gets swallowed into oblivion.
- The fact that black holes do not allow light to escape makes viewing them difficult.
- The scientists look for a ring of light - disrupted matter and radiation circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon - around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole.
- This is known as the black hole's shadow or silhouette.
Interesting to know:
- The project's researchers obtained the first data in April 2017 using telescopes in the US states of Arizona and Hawaii as well as in Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica.
- Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the global network.
- The global network of telescopes has essentially created a planet-sized observational dish.
Question:
Q. The first-ever photo of which celestial phenomenon was released from a research conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project?a. Supernova
b. Black Hole
c. Birth of a Star
d. Asteroid Collision
