Black Hole at Heart of Milky Way Imaged for First Time

The groundbreaking image shows the gaping maw of our galaxy’s heart.

By Mark Zastrow
May 12, 2022 4:30 PMMay 12, 2022 4:57 PM
Black hole
The first direct image of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole shows an orange glowing ring — gas heated as it fall into the singularity — with the shadow of the black hole at the center. (Credit: EHT Collaboration)

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In a triumph of observation and data processing, astronomers at the Event Horizon Telescope have captured the first ever picture of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The black hole is named Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”), and the reveal of its image received an international rollout this morning in simultaneous press conferences held by the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Garching, Germany.

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