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1st image of black hole
Why is it in news?
- Astronomers announced that at last they had seen the unseeable: a black hole, a cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it.
More in news
- About image obtained:(1) The image shows a ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87.(2) It is some 55 million light-years away from here, resembled the Eye of Sauron.
- More powerful than sun:(1) To capture the image, astronomers reached across intergalactic space to a giant galaxy known as Messier 87, in the constellation Virgo.(2) There, a black hole about seven billion times more massive than the sun is unleashing a violent jet of energy some 5,000 light years into space.
- Theory Vs actual:
- The image offered a final, ringing affirmation of an idea so disturbing that even Einstein, from whose equations black holes emerged, was loath to accept it.
- If too much matter is crammed into one place, the cumulative force of gravity becomes overwhelming, and the place becomes an eternal trap, a black hole.
- Here, according to Einstein’s theory, matter, space and time come to an end.
- Event Horizon Telescope:(1) The image emerged from two years of computer analysis of observations from a network of radio antennas called the Event Horizon Telescope.(2) In all, eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents observed the galaxy in Virgo on and off for 10 days in April 2017.(3) The telescope array also monitored a dim source of radio noise called Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star), at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.
- How will it be useful?(1) The images provide astrophysicists with the first look at the innards of a black hole.(2) As hot, dense gas swirls around the black hole, the intense pressures and magnetic fields cause energy to squirt from either side.(3) As a paradoxical result, supermassive black holes, which lurk in the centres of galaxies, can be the most luminous objects in the universe.
Source
The Hindu, NY Times