Sagittarius A*

A second black hole is now imaged. This time, it's ours. :)

The Event Horizon Telescope has captured a historic first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

The image, which was taken in the light of submillimeter radio waves, confirms that there is a black hole in the heart of the Milky Way that is feeding on a trickle of hydrogen gas.

"Until now, we didn't have the direct picture to prove that this gentle giant in the center of our galaxy is a black hole," Feryal Özel, an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona, said during a National Science Foundation news conference held Thursday (May 12). "It shows a bright ring surrounding the darkness, and the telltale sign of the shadow of the black hole."

An image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, a behemoth dubbed Sagittarius A*, revealed by the Event Horizon Telescope on May 12, 2022.
(Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration)