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