Just the beginning ...

The first image of a black hole, from the galaxy Messier 87. CreditCreditEvent Horizon Telescope Collaboration, via National Science Foundation

Black holes rule and ... they exist big time. To whit.

“We have seen what we thought was unseeable,” said Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and director of the effort to capture the image, during a Wednesday news conference in Washington, D.C.

The image, of a lopsided ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87, some 55 million light-years away from Earth, resembled the Eye of Sauron, a reminder yet again of the implacable power of nature. It is a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.

The network of telescopes was sensitive enough to observe daily variations in the bright ring around the M87 black hole.

Just the beginning ... of a new era in astronomy is at hand. Stellar without question.

EKCD yet again. :)

Makes one feel small doesn't it?

538's take on how they did this is truly astounding. Excellent to a fault. :)

Just one more thing ... :) The pix below shows the Messier 87 black hole in context
via the Chandra X-ray observatory.

The Core of M87: Chandra Captures X-rays in Coordination with EHTScientists have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to obtain data of Messier 87 during the April 2017 observations by the Event Horizon Telescope.

X-ray Layout: Wide Field & Close-up

X-ray Close-up & Event Horizon Telescope Image