Three years ago, science provided us with one of the most surprising images we had ever seen: the first real photograph of a black hole, one of the most impressive and unknown phenomena in the universe, which is not uncommon. On the contrary, scientists calculate that the universe is full of them.

Albert Einstein was the first to notice their presence, although a prominent physicist never took them too seriously: Einstein predicted the existence of black holes in general relativity, but did not believe in them. Before him, other scientists had speculated about similar objects; but only later, long after Einstein wrote his equations, did they prove to exist.

Black holes are currently divided into different types according to size and design and are considered a very common phenomenon in space. So much so that every spiral galaxy – but also ellipses and other types – that inhabit space has at least one of these massive and supermassive black holes at its center. And our galaxies, The Milky Way is no exceptionOf course.

Sagittarius A *, a black hole in the Milky Way

Sagittarius A *, abbreviated Sgr A *, is a black hole located in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and also in its center of gravity. So it is a spiral galaxy: it does not rotate because it feels that way, but because it is rotated by a monster like Sgr A * with an estimated mass of about four million suns.

Well, from the team responsible for taking the first real photo of the black hole comes this first image of Sagittarius A *, also created using Horizontal telescope of eventsnot by chance, but because it was the team’s new goal: after the M87 it was his turn our Shooter A *. The result can be seen in the image at the top of this article.

«We were surprised at how well the size of the ring matched the predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.“Explains Geoffrey Bower, one of those responsible.

Interestingly, unlike M87, a supermassive black hole found in the 6.5 billion sun Virgo A Galaxy, Sagittarius A + is much smaller but no less impressive. It’s closer to us and much smaller, yes, but they look very similar to each other, which shows how these titans of the universe “work”.

But even the M87 is not one of the largest supermassive black holes ever discovered. The largest is known as TON 618 and is estimated to weigh 66,000 million times as much as the Sun and is sized and growing in hundreds of our solar systems.

The black hole does not stop “eating” everything around it, within reach. A black hole is basically an area of ​​space in which the density of matter is concentrated so as to create a gravitational field from which nothing can escape. Not even light, it was said, though also the memorable Stephen Hawking theorized with the type of radiation he could do: Hawking radiation.

If we go back to Sagittarius A *, we will leave you a video for you to situate yourself, or to situate yourself in the cosmic colossus, without which none of us would be here. Remember that our slar system is located in the Milky Way, but in its arm, as if it were a suburb of a big city. Sagittarius A *, on the other hand, is the dark king around whom everything revolves.