A second epoch shows the ring persists and the bright spot moves
Analysis of the 2018 observing campaign produced a second image of M87*, published in 2024. The ring diameter was consistent with the 2017 result, as the geometry requires, since the shadow size is fixed by mass and distance. The position of maximum brightness around the ring had shifted, which the accretion flow permits and the geometry does not constrain. The pair of epochs is the cleanest available demonstration that the dark centre is a stable structural feature rather than an imaging artefact of one week of data.
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
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
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)
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.
- 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 first image of a black hole shadow is published · 2019-04-10
- 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