INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST BLACK HOLE PHOTO

The first ever photo of a Black Hole is here thanks to tireless work of almost 200 astronomers. Black hole has been an intriguing entity for all scientists. The gravitational pull is such that not even light can escape the massive space phenomenon. Albert Einstein’s relativity theorem had predicted at the time that “if immersed in a bright region, like a disc of glowing gas, a black hole is expected to create a dark region similar to a shadow.” Now scientists are excited to finally see the first photo of a Black Hole and this is a moment that will go down in the history of Astronomy. Here are a few interesting facts behind this first iconic photo:

1. Black holes are made up of a huge amount of matter compressed together into a small area.

2. The Black Hole photographed is at the center of a galaxy named M87 or Messier 87

3. More than 200 scientists worked together to make this photo possible.

4. This is the first direct visual proof of the existence of supermassive black holes.

5. The mass for this black hole has been calculated to be more than 6.5 billion times that of our Sun.

6. The nearest galaxy to it is Virgo Galaxy.

7. This is 55 million lightyears away from the Earth

8. The global network of telescopes that captured this photo is called EHT, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.