What The Event Horizon Telescope Reveals About Galaxy M87

Here is the first direct image of a supermassive black hole. Captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of eight radio telescopes spread across the world, the image shows the bright, spinning disk of material around the galaxy M87's supermassive black hole. Due the the intense gravity present near black holes, the appearance of the disk is warped. (Credit: EHT Collaboration) A massive international collaboration of researchers has released the first-ever direct image of the hellish environment surrounding a supermassive black hole. As part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, the team used a global array of telescopes to probe the fiery disk of material swirling around the gargantuan black hole at the center of the galaxy M87. The results confirm that the hot gas swirling around a black hole is traveling at nearly the speed of light, creating a chaotic maelstrom around the black hole itself. And ...