Photographed the black hole in the center of our galaxy, near the Milky Way, thanks to international cooperation Event Horizon Telescope (Eht) And with Italian contribution National Institute of Astronomy (INAF), National Institute of Atomic Physics (Infn), Federico II University of Naples And Cochlear University. The picture is perfect Conclusive evidence There is a black hole in the center of the Milky Way.
Published in 10 articles in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the results were published in Germany and published worldwide with the European Southern Laboratory (ESO); Inaf, Infn and two universities in Italy.
Three years later The first photo of the black holeThat Galaxy M87The new image confirms the existence of a black hole in the center of our galaxy: “One Great proof“Researchers at a press conference in Rome defined this: Ciriaco Goddi of Cagliari, Inaf and Infn, Elisabetta Liuzzo Nicola Marchili and Kazi Rygl, trio of the INAF and, in connection with, Federico II’s Mariafelicia de Laurentis at the University of Naples and Infn., And Rogo Ligo of Astrophysica de Andalusia and Inaf.
Even in this Historical shotThe effect of work More than 300 researchers from 80 companies around the world It develops together Eht collaborationBecause the black hole is not directly visible Does not emit light: You see something thick Brilliant gas ring‘Its size if it is around the moon around the dark central part calledShadow‘. The ring is made Distorted light From the mighty Intensity The black hole, which is four million times heavier than the Sun, is 27,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius.
Although the two black holes are very similar, they are beyond the Milky Way A thousand times smaller And weighs less than the M87.
The photo was taken by the World Wide Web Eight radio telescopesIncluding the world’s most powerful: Alma (Atacama Large Illimeter / Submillimeter Series), in which Italy participates through the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and presents the Italian terminal of the Alma European Regional Center at the INAF headquarters in Bologna.
Radio telescopes They work in unisonThey are like one Great tool like the earth Several nights in April pointed together at the center of the galaxy 2017Collecting data for several hours at a time is like exposing a camera for a long time.
Although Sociutarius A * is much closer than the first indestructible black hole in a photograph, its image was much harder to obtain: because it is so small, the gas spins around very quickly, taking only a few minutes to complete one orbit. Black hole (against the days taken by the gas around the black hole of M87). As a result, in order to get the image, it is necessary to create an average of the many images obtained in the search campaign.
A dream come true 20 years later
“We have 20 year dream”: These are the first words that came with the photo of the Milky Way black hole. To pronounce them, at a meeting organized at the National Institute of Astronomy (INAF) in Italy, Syriac Cody Cochlear University, Enaff and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the image of the Milky Way on the screen flew towards the heart of the galaxy, showing a red “donut” as they jokingly showed. The researchers were called.
“This is a long-awaited conclusion because it proves the correctness of the predictions in Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” said the head of the INAF. Marco Dhawani. To the Vice President of Infn, Marco Pallavicini“This is a beautiful day for research, because we now have the geographical and visible evidence of the importance of international cooperation in the field of research.
“Obtaining this film has been our goal since the beginning of the project, which was created in 2000, and exposing it to the world today gives us back many years of hard work,” said Cody, who co-founded the European Blackholecom team since 2014. One of the projects formed by Eht Collaboration. “Studies of the galaxy have made it possible for many years to perform general relativity experiments, but the results presented today are unprecedented because it allows for many original measurements of gravitational force and allows for the creation of new science about the largest black holes and their role. Evolution of the universe: we have opened the door to a new extraordinary laboratory.” He was in contact with the INAF headquarters in Rome. Mariafelicia de LaurentisInfn researcher at the University of Federico II, Naples and coordinator of the Eht Collaborative Working Group on Gravity Experiments.
He said it took five years for the film to come out properly Elizabeth LiusoEht and INAF collaboration and thousands of simulations and theoretical models, he added Nicola Marchili, INAF. He said it was necessary to use “large computer infrastructure” to process the data. Rocco Lego, By Inaf and the Spanish Institute de Astrophysica de Andalusia. “In this process – he added – the unprecedented library of simulated black holes was also compiled for comparison with observations”.
Now we look to the future and refine our tools for searching for new observations. For example, last March the Eht collaboration launched a new surveillance campaign that included three new radio telescopes. “There is the thought of a virtual telescope bigger than Earth,” he said Kasi Raikal, Eht and INAF collaboration. This time it is only a project and the idea of using a future space telescope.
Mass, an ‘extraordinary result’
An “extraordinary” result, which demonstrates the importance of international cooperation in the field of science and the importance of Italy being a part of it: University and Research Minister Maria Cristina Messa, commented on the photo. Black hole in the center of the Milky Way. “It’s an extraordinary decision, to what extent – we can only really feel it over time,” he said.
“Congratulations to the best and most global working group that has been able to achieve this, and within this, to the Italian scientists. Demonstrates how important data is, how to further strengthen and implement them and how to try to protect these networks even in times of crisis “.
“This decision reminds us that we should not always rush to reach a particular conclusion in a very short period of time: research has its own periods and we must have the patience to know it,” the minister said. There will always be value. ”
