The European Southern Observatory (ESO) will give the world new information about our galaxy within two weeks.
What Will Be The Announcement?
We can only guess what announcements will come, but based on what we know about their recent efforts, we have reason to be excited. The presented result is the world’s first image of black holes in 2019.
For many years, the EHT project has been studying the Milky Way, the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, which is most likely home to a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*.
What they’re keeping secret as scientists simultaneously hold press conferences around the world is most likely the next release after the historic moment of 2019, when the first black hole was discovered.
Read: Astronomers have discovered a galaxy that is devoid of dark matter
Time And Venue To Watch The Live Conference
The Discovery Conference will be broadcast live on May 12, 2022 at 15:00 CET (13:00 UTC, 9:00 EDT) followed by a YouTube event featuring six astronomers from around the world. The press release will include “extensive support audiovisual material” (Woo!).
Have Astronomers managed to Get Images of Saggitarius A*?
If astronomers could get a direct image of A*’s event horizon, it would be a historic moment you don’t want to miss.
Black holes are very difficult to draw because they are literally invisible and absorb all electromagnetic radiation.
All we can hope to see is the event horizon. Essentially the outline of a black hole, where light can no longer escape the black hole’s gravity.
Read: Astronomers Uses Hubble Observations to Answer, Key Questions about ‘Hot Jupiters’
Why Is It Difficult To Capture The Image? Is Sagittarius A* Black Hole?
Sagittarius A* is surrounded by clouds of dust and gas, making it particularly difficult to study. Even if astronomers photographed the horizon of a black hole, it would look like a glowing donut. It is an accretion disk of a black hole, a ring of gas and dust that emits intense radiation as it falls into the abyss.
ESO’s press release promises something “breakthrough” the same it used before releasing the first direct image of a black hole in 2019.
Place Of Sagittarius A* Black Hole In Our Galaxy
Sgt A* is at the center of galaxy M87 and has a mass that is 6.5. billion times larger than our sun. Its event horizon has a radius of about 20 billion kilometers, which is very far away. Experts compare direct imaging to observing a one-millimeter-sized object from 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away.
Conclusion
Sgr A* is at the center of our galaxy, much closer to us. But this is very small for a supermassive black hole, only 4.3 million times the size of the Sun.
It is detectable because it is much closer to Earth than M87*. If astronomers finally capture an image of the event horizon, it’s certainly groundbreaking. We are excited to see what the ESO is going to present us.
Author
