We’ve seen humanity’s first photo of a black hole. Is the adventure over? No. Far from it: « The researchers…
We’ve seen humanity’s first photo of a black hole. Is the adventure over?
No. Far from it: « The researchers who captured the first-ever images of a black hole don’t plan to rest on their laurels, » Space.com said.
Astronomers agree that their work is far from done, project director Sheperd Doeleman of Harvard University said at a news conference Wednesday. It is actually only just beginning.
Scientists this week unveiled the first picture of a black hole, which was located at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the « nearby » Virgo galaxy cluster. It looked like a flaming orange, yellow and black ring.
Images came from a collection of eight telescopes around the world specifically designed to peer at black holes, part of the Event Horizon Telescope project. The telescopes are in Chile, Hawaii, Arizona, Mexico, Spain and at the South Pole.
Though the image was a monumental achievement, Doeleman said the images could still be made sharper. And this could be done by adding more telescopes.
« We are embarking on a wonderful new series of putting new telescopes (at places around) the Earth, so if you add more telescopes, you build out that virtual mirror, » he said. « Even adding two or three more stations in just the right places will increase the fidelity of the image a lot. »
Also, the now-famous image unveiled Wednesday was of a black hole that’s in a galaxy far, far away.
