They've
captured our imaginations for decades, but we've never actually
photographed a black hole before – until now. Next Wednesday, at
several press briefings around the world, scientists will apparently
unveil humanity's first-ever photo of a black hole, the European Space
Agency said in a statement.
Specifically, the photo will be of "Sagittarius A," the supermassive
black hole that's at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
But
aren't black holes, well, black, and thus invisible, so none of our telescopes
can "see" them? Yes – therefore the image we're likely to see will
be of the "event horizon," the edge of the black hole where
light can't escape.
Even
that will be challenging, however, as the black hole at the center of our
galaxy is "shrouded in a thick cloud of dust and gas," according to Science Alert. Even more confounding is that spacetime around a black
hole is "weird."
So
the photo may show a dark blob surrounded by a ring of bright light, according
to Yahoo.
Science News said that the black hole research was done using the Event
Horizon Telescope, a network of eight radio observatories around the world.
Whatever
the announcement is next week, "we’ll almost certainly be seeing something
no human has ever seen before," Popular Mechanics reported.
Press
briefings will be held simultaneously in the U.S, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai,
Taipei and Tokyo.