The photo of the black hole the most important photo of the history of astrophysics

In 1781, the French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalog of 103 objects rather fuzzy than he thought were nebulae; the 87th object is M87.

We know today that it is one of the most massive galaxies in our world, located 54 million light years from Earth.

The M87 has just become one of the most important objects in the history of astronomy. The engine room in the center of this galaxy is a very massive black hole, 6.5 billion times more massive than our Sun and more than 1600 times more massive than the black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

In physics, mass refers to the number of particles and not to dimensions; a small but very dense object can be described as massive.

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A black hole is an object whose output speed is greater than the speed of light. The exit speed is the speed required to get out of its gravitational hold.

The more the mass is packed in a given volume, the higher the output speed. The exit speed of the Earth is 11.2 km / s, while that of a black hole is greater than 300 000 km / s. The speed of light, A force of gravitation as powerful as possible, requires a huge mass.

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is about the size of the orbit of the planet closest to our Sun, Mercury, "small" by astronomical standards.

Black holes are extremely difficult to photograph because galaxies containing super-massive black holes are located at great distances from the Earth.

The gravitational field of a black hole attracts all that adventure from too close, including stars, planets and asteroids.

The material near the black hole travels tens of thousands of kilometers per second as it wraps in the black hole.

Frictions generated in this region around a black hole, called accretion disk, generate temperatures of tens of millions of degrees and emit electromagnetic radiation.

Until April 10, 2019, black holes were theoretical objects; however, there was strong evidence of their existence.

The European Southern Observatory telescope closely followed the sky and the stars in orbit around what was supposed to be the black hole in the center of our galaxy.

But to see is to believe and until a good image of a black circle in the center of a galaxy is obtained, there is always a lingering doubt about the existence of black holes.

On April 10, the very first image of a black hole, which lies at the center of the M87 galaxy, is the most important photograph of the history of astrophysics.

The image was obtained by combining data from eight telescopes located on four continents.

Using a technique called broad base matrix interferometry, it is possible to construct a telescope of size equivalent to the size of the Earth.

To do this, on April 4, 2017, each of the telescopes was pointed at M87 and began receiving the radio signals exactly at the same time.

This lasted a week, after which large amounts of data from each telescope were transmitted to two treatment centers for analysis.

Each of the telescopes alone could not produce a distinct image, but by carefully combining the data of each one, an image could be assembled.

The Vox Observatory video television reported that four teams independently analyzed the data to produce the photo and that each resulted in the same result, proving that the analysis was correct.

Vox also noted why M87 had been chosen; it is visible by the eight telescopes simultaneously once a year and emits radio waves that can be received by telescopes connected to the Earth.

It took luck for the experiment to be a success, the light of the M87 had to pass without obstruction of dust, gas or large objects during its 54 million year journey.

One of the telescopes was located in Antarctica; and the team had to wait six months for the large number of hard drives containing data to be released because there are no winter flights from the mainland.

Black holes remain mysterious; what is happening in them, is there a point of infinite density (singularity), are they gateways to new universes?

These are questions that future scientists can answer.