The image is celebrated as a landmark moment for astrophysics – backing up one of Einstein’s most famous theories.

The first-ever real picture of a black hole has been revealed, in what is being hailed as a historic moment for science.

Assembled by data from eight radio telescopes, the image depicts a fiery orange and black ring of gravity-twisted light swirling around the edge of the abyss.

As “science fiction becomes science fact”, here is a summary of what we know:

:: The supermassive black hole contains 6.5 billion times more mass than the sun

:: It is located about 54 million light years from Earth

The black hole is big enough to swallow stars at the centre of a distant galaxy

:: It is at the centre of Messier 87 – a huge galaxy in the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster