Scientists prepare to take picture of black hole
The Event Horizon Telscope radio telescope network is now ready to take the first-ever image of a black hole. The protagonist of the session will be Sagittarius A, a black hole located in the center of the Milky Way.
Black holes are among the most fascinating objectsóin the Universe. Scientists próare going to study them on róThere are various ways to do this, but no pictures of the black hole have been taken so far. That’s because black holes are such massive objects that not even light can break free from the arms of their gravity.
Researchers The first images of the black hole intend to be taken using a network of radio telescopesóat the Event Horizon Telscope (EHT). This network consists of a telescopeóin deployed around the world m.in. at the South Pole, in the US, in Chile or in the French Alps. The first photo shoot of Sagitarius A will be performed from April 5 to 14 this year.
The EHT is working with technique known as large-baseline interferometry. Receiver networków will focus on radio waves emitted by the Sagittarius A black hole at the same time. To make it a success in each of the telescopesów, whoóry belongs to the EHT has installed atomic clocks.
The mass of the Sagittarius A black hole is close to the mass of four millionóin the Sun. Its diameter is about 20 millionóin a kilometerów. The heroine of the April session is located 26 thousand light years from Earth.
Researchers expect to collect a huge amount of data. After the observations are made, the data will be analyzed by a special algorithm. Due to the abundance of data, this work may take as long as early 2018.
– We intend to make observations in April, które in our opinion they will actually be the first serious chance to look directly at the event horizon – said project leader Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
What scientists expect to see? According to computer simulations (photo below) made last year, the eyes of researchers should see pólunar moon of light surrounding the black spot. SourceóThe source of this light is gas and dust devoured by a black hole. Whether this will happen we will see wkrótce.