The first image of a black hole shadow is published
The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released an image of M87* in simultaneous press conferences and a series of papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters: an asymmetric bright ring about 42 microarcseconds across surrounding a dark centre. The dark region is the shadow cast by strong light bending near the photon sphere, not the horizon itself, and it is about two and a half times larger in diameter. The measured diameter yielded a mass of roughly six and a half billion suns, agreeing with the higher of two competing pre-existing estimates. Four imaging teams had worked independently and blind before comparing results.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- M87* - the supermassive black hole in Messier 87 · celestial body · Virgo Cluster, constellation Virgo as seen from Earth · not located
- Event Horizon Telescope · network · Global array · not located
- The photon sphere and the shadow · concept · not located
- Accretion disc · phenomenon · not located
- Very long baseline interferometry · technology · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole
Reports the first image of a black hole shadow, an asymmetric ring about 42 microarcseconds across, together with the array, observing campaign and imaging methodology. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: not consulted in session; WebFetch to iopscience.iop.org and eventhorizontelescope.org was refused by the egress proxy and no search could be issued. Volume and article number are from recall of a canonical citation.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration) · 2019-04-10 · Partly verified
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, Astrophysical Journal Letters 875, L1 (2019)
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. VI. The Shadow and Mass of the Central Black Hole
Relates the measured ring diameter to the mass of M87*, giving approximately six and a half billion solar masses and testing the shadow prediction of general relativity. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: not consulted in session; no research tool was available. Volume and article number are from recall; the quoted mass uncertainty is not reproduced in this pack.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration) · 2019-04-10 · Partly verified
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, Astrophysical Journal Letters 875, L6 (2019)
Recorded on M87* - the supermassive black hole in Messier 87
- Heber Curtis records a curious straight ray in Messier 87
- Cygnus X-1 is localised and weighed
- Bekenstein assigns entropy to a black hole
- A mechanism for extracting energy from a spinning black hole
- The Event Horizon Telescope observes M87* and Sagittarius A*
- The first image of a black hole shadow is published
- The M87* ring is imaged in polarised light
- The black hole at the centre of our own galaxy is imaged
- A second epoch shows the ring persists and the bright spot moves
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A second epoch shows the ring persists and the bright spot moves · 2024
- The black hole at the centre of our own galaxy is imaged · 2022-05-12
- The M87* ring is imaged in polarised light · 2021-03
- The Event Horizon Telescope observes M87* and Sagittarius A* · 2017-04
- A mechanism for extracting energy from a spinning black hole · 1977
- Bekenstein assigns entropy to a black hole · 1973
- Cygnus X-1 is localised and weighed · 1971-1972
- Heber Curtis records a curious straight ray in Messier 87 · 1918