Brace yourself! First ever image of a black hole is revealed

The first image of a black hole, captured with the planetwide virtual array called the Event Horizon Telescope. The light is being pulled into the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy over 54 million light years away. 

Event Horizon Telescope

History created!! Yes the human race has finally witnessed the humongous monster of space, the Black Hole. Until now every image of a black hole you have ever seen has been an artist's impression based on the observations provided by scientists.

The highly anticipated cosmic portrait belongs to the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, the largest galaxy human race has ever witnessed. The black hole is about 6.5 billion times gignactic than our Sun and is about 54 million light years away from our own Milky-Way galaxy.

The image has come from the Event Horizon telescope, a network of 8 radio telescopes spread across the planet and functioning as if it were a single receiver, one tuned to high frequency radio waves. All the eight telescopes are synchronized properly so that the data obtained from all the eight telescopes can be combine together to form a unanimous photo of a black hole.

The eventual EHT array will have 12 widely spaced participating radio facilities

 This synchronization is achieved with the help of Atomic clock, one of the most accurate clock present on the Earth with having an accuracy of 10^(-19) seconds per day(approximately 1 part in 10^(14)).

Atomic clock

After reading till here you might think that why a mere picture of an outer world creating so much hype. Like there have been other pictures of space out there. The answer lies in the nature of a black hole. Actually a black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. And thus making it next to impossible to visualize or to capture it in photos. But despite of such limitations, our scientist's were able to take a photo of a black hole present at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy over 54 million light years away.

But let me tell you one thing that the most acclaimed photo of black hole released recently is actually not of a black hole.

As Manchester University astronomer Tim Muxlow told The Guardian in 2017, the image captured isn't exactly a direct photo of a black hole as much as it's a picture of its shadow.

"It will be an image of its silhouette sliding against the background glow of radiation of the heart of the Milky Way," he said. "That photograph will reveal the contours of a black hole for the first time."