Black Hole Picture Revealed for the First Time

Astronomers at last have captured an image of the darkest entities in the cosmos.

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

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that at last they had seen the unseeable: a black hole, a cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it.

“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.

“This is a remarkable achievement,” said Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at Harvard University. The image provides visual evidence that black holes exist.CreditCreditEvent Horizon Telescope Collaboration, via National Science Foundation

“This is a remarkable achievement,” said Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at Harvard University. The image provides visual evidence that black holes exist.CreditCreditEvent Horizon Telescope Collaboration, via National Science Foundation
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 power and malevolence of nature. It is a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.