The First Photograph of a Black Hole

The 2019 has ushered in an amazing discovery. Astrophysicists and astronomers now have photographic evidence of a black hole. The image above shows a black hole from galaxy M87.  To detect this supermassive black hole required a global network of eight radio telescopes. Such unusual structures of space are difficult to detect with cameras. The technique used was to look for the silhouette generated by the black hole's event horizon  and accretion disk. The Event Horizon Telescope had been gathering data since 2017 and from that information produced this image. Prior to this photograph, astrophysicists only had indirect evidence of black holes. Einstein's theory of relativity predicted their existence. Through mathematical reasoning and a different perspective relating to gravity, the black hole was an object of  outer space that could not fully be observed. As technology and telescopes become more advanced,  theoretical physics will become more experimental. Long baseline interferometry  combines the radio waves of various telescopes giving it more power to detect objects in the known  universe. The supermassive black hole of  galaxy M87 is 6.5 billion times the mass of the  Sun and 55 million light years away from Earth. Now that there is an image of an actual black hole, this only adds more questions. The most discussed remains what could be inside a black hole singularity. Astronomy and Astrophysics have reached a new age in exploration and knowledge. As more images of black holes are produced they may actually show possible variety in attributes.