On April 5th, the Event Horizon Telescope, consisting of eight radio telescopes from different parts of the world, was launched. This virtual telescope with the diameter equivalent to the diameter of the earth will try to observe the super black hole "Sagittarius A *" in the center of the Milky Way in the next 1 days. Man is finally going to take the first "photo" of a black hole.
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The National Science Foundation of the United States is the funder of some of these telescopes. On the same day, Frans Cordova, chairman of the Foundation, issued a statement saying that the event horizon telescope will try to take the first "photo" of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, which is "an exciting and challenging job" and will help to verify some basic physical theories.
A black hole is a celestial body with a very small body and great mass, and it has a very strong gravitational force. In a certain area around it, even light cannot escape. This area is called "event horizon". The event horizon telescope is actually trying to observe the event horizon of black holes.
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Sagittarius A * is 26, light years away from the earth. According to scientists, taking pictures of Sagittarius A * is roughly equivalent to "taking pictures of a grapefruit on the surface of the moon", so it is necessary to use a virtual telescope the size of the earth. In addition, the Event Horizon Telescope will also observe the central black hole of nearby galaxy M87 this time.
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it's not easy to take a picture of a black hole, so you can't take it immediately. Astronomers need several months to sort out and analyze the observation data obtained in these 1 days, and it is expected that the first black hole "photo" will be released in 218.