Why was imaging Sagittarius A* harder than imaging Messier 87*?

Inside black holes

Chapter 1

The anatomy of a black hole

Chapter 2

The four cosmic families

Chapter 3

Extreme physics and spaghettification

Chapter 4

Photographing the invisible

YOUR GOAL

Master of Inside black holes

Ch 4 · Photographing the invisible
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hue Event Horizon Telescope

We turned the whole Earth into a giant lens, to see the glowing ring of Sagittarius A-star!

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hue The historic first portrait

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Imaging our own sleeping giant

hue In 2022, astronomers successfully captured the first image of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way.

Jul 20

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The historic first portrait

hue The first black hole ever imaged lies at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87.

Jul 20

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Shadow Snapper
BETA

hue Snap photos of cosmic shadows to discover how black holes vary in type and size.

Jul 20

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Fun Fact

Earth-sized camera: The Event Horizon Telescope combined data from eight observatories to act as a single planet-sized dish.

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Jul 20

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Glossary
event horizon (noun)
A theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or other radiation can escape. In April 2019, a global telescope network captured the first image of this boundary in M87.

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Gossip

Which discovery was more exciting?

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Quiz

In which distant galaxy did the black hole from the first-ever 2019 image reside?

Jul 20

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hue Imaging our own sleeping giant

Jul 20

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Quiz

What observatory first detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes in 2015?

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hue A telescope as big as Earth

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Quiz

In what year did scientists capture the first-ever image of a black hole?

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hue Listening to the cosmic ripples

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Quiz

What color was the glowing ring of gas in the famous processed images of Messier 87*?

Jul 20

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Quiz

What are the ripples in spacetime caused by colliding black holes called?

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Quiz

Why was imaging Sagittarius A* harder than imaging Messier 87*?

Jul 20

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Quiz

What is the name of the global network of radio telescopes used to image black holes?

Jul 20

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Quiz

What technique links multiple telescopes worldwide to act as one giant dish?

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