Side by side of the first two images of black holes

These panels show the first two images ever taken of black holes. On the left is M87*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87), 55 million light-years away. On the right is Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way. The two images show the black holes as they would appear in the sky, with their bright rings appearing to be roughly the same size, despite M87* being around a thousand times larger than Sgr A*. The images were captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global network of radio telescopes including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), in which ESO is co-owner.

Credit:

EHT Collaboration

About the Image

Id:eso2208-eht-mwd
Type:Collage
Release date:12 May 2022, 15:07
Related releases:eso2208-eht-mw
Size:3616 x 1824 px

About the Object

Name:Black hole
Type:Milky Way : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Central Black Hole
Category:Quasars and Black Holes

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Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Millimeter1.3 mmEvent Horizon Telescope