Our pale blue dot was created amid the debris left behind after the creation of a star 4.5 billion years ago. Since then, we have been trapped in a cosmic dance; Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Sun revolves around the galactic center, the enigmatic, black core of the Milky Way.

Sagittarius A*, a supermᴀssive black hole with a mᴀss of about 4.3 million times that of the Sun, resides in the galaxy’s dark core, which the whole galaxy orbits around. We were able to deduce its existence and estimate it based on the motions of nearby items, but we had never seen the thing itself.

The first image of supermᴀssive blackhole at the center of SgrA*. (EHT Collaboration)

That is, never before till today. This picture above is Sgr A* itself, observed for the very first time by mankind owing to the participation of the Event Horizon Telescope.

To be clear, we can’t see the black hole itself – but it’s there, in that dark patch in the middle of a disk of glowing material.

For the first time, have direct evidence that Sgr A* is a black hole. The dark patch in the center is the shadow of the black hole; around it, H๏τ gas swirls, heated by friction. This gas gives off radio radiation that we can detect.

Event Horizon Telescope made this possible and around 300 scientists around the world worked on this and made it possible to see the and prove the existence of a Super Mᴀssive Black Hole. Once again, this proves Einstein’s predictions accurate.

Reference(s): ESO Announcement , Event Horizon Telescope