Astronomers Capture 1st Image of Milky Way’s Huge Black Hole

Astronomers Capture 1st Image of Milky Way’s Huge Black Hole
A black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in an image released on May 12, 2022. Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration via AP
The Associated Press
Updated:

WASHINGTON—The world’s first image of the chaotic supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy doesn’t portray a voracious cosmic destroyer but what astronomers Thursday called a “gentle giant” on a near-starvation diet.

Astronomers believe nearly all galaxies, including our own, have these giant black holes at their bustling and crowded center, where light and matter cannot escape, making it extremely hard to get images of them. Light gets bent and twisted around by gravity as it gets sucked into the abyss along with superheated gas and dust.