PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Scientists using a global network of telescopes released the first ever image of a black hole, an achievement that validates Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
The details were announced in a series of six scientific papers published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
According to Reuters, the photo of the black hole at the center of Messier 87, or M87, a galaxy residing in the center of the Virgo galaxy cluster, shows a glowing ring of red, yellow and white surrounding a dark center.
The image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT, a network of eight linked radio telescopes in six locations that acts as a planet-sized observational dish.
The observations confirms the theory of general relativity proposed in 1915 by Einstein to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.
Based on his equations, scientists predicted what a black hole would look like due to the immense gravitational pull, and what the light around it should look like.
According to University of Arizona astronomer Dimitrios Psaltis in a press release, "the Event Horizon Telescope allows us for the very first time to test the predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity around supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies."
"The predicted size and shape of the shadow theory match our observations remarkably well, increasing our confidence in this century-old theory," he added.
According to Reuters, the M87 black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth and has a mass of 6.5 billion times that of the sun.
