Astronomers reveal first image of black hole at the heart of our galaxy

The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy.

Astronomers on Thursday unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.

The finding, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies.

The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes.

The finding was unveiled during simultaneous press conferences around the world, including at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) headquarters in Germany.

The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy. Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact, and very massive at the centre of the Milky Way.

This strongly suggested that this object — known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a black hole, and the image provides the first direct visual evidence of it.

Although we cannot see the black hole itself, because it is completely dark, glowing gas around it reveals a tell-tale signature: a dark central region (called a shadow) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure, the researchers said.