Speaker 1: There are eight radio telescopes that comprise the occasion, horizon telescope type of like a world wide observatory. They all gathered light from around the great void gathering petabytes worth of information, however there were still some spaces because data. Researchers utilize algorithms to fill those spaces, [ 00:06:00] rebuilding the most likely picture of the great void. The resolution of the EHT is so sharp that it could count the dimples on a golf ball in LA all the method from New York. Thats not the actual distance in between LA and New York, however you get what I imply. But in this case, its not focusing on a golf ball. Its focusing on a galaxy 54 million lie ears away in 2022, the EHT launched a second image of the incredibly enormous great void known [00:06:30] as Sagittarius a star. It was the first direct evidence of the black hole at the center of Al galaxy. So why do we study this wild and unusual part of space? Well, researchers hope images like the ones produced by the EHT can teach us about how matter behaves around great voids. And maybe whats even beyond the occasion horizon. These.
Speaker 1: Black holes, the most significant puzzle in our universe. Im Claire Riley and Im CNET resident area nerd. Im here to break down everything you need to understand about black holes.
Speaker 1: Black holes, the most significant puzzle in our universe. Im here to break down whatever you require to know about black holes. If light can escaped the center of a black hole, how do we understand what they actually look like? How do we discover these black holes in area after all we are talking about something we cant in fact see? Great to understand what my existential crisis now sounds like, but we have not simply heard black holes.
Speaker 2: So we understand that the smaller sized ones, the ones that are on the scale of the mass of the star, those are normally developed through the gravitational collapse of a massive star. And at the end of its lifetime, gravity will actually win out over the other forces and cause all of the star stuff to collapse, but for the super huge black holes. These are black holes that are at the centers of galaxies.
Speaker 2: My name is Regina Caputo, and Im a research study astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard space flight center. A great void is just an area of space where gravity is so strong, that light cant escape,
How do we discover these black holes in space after all we are talking about something we cant in fact see? Excellent to understand what my existential crisis now sounds like, but we havent simply heard black holes. 2 in 2019 scientists revealed the first ever image of a black hole shadow from the occasion horizon telescope.
The smallest ones are called primordial black holes. Next up, we have stellar black holes. At the top of the size scale are the super huge black holes.
Speaker 2: We cant see it cuz light cant escape the event horizon, however great deals of theorists have developed ideas as to what [00:04:00] would be at the center. And today we follow this idea that its like a singularity. And so its simply a, a single point in area and that somehow has the mass of a billion stars. << laugh>>.
Yes, black holes likewise eat each other. If light can escaped the center of a black hole, how do we know what they in fact look like? Thats known as the accretion disc and the limit between the brilliant swirl of gas and the dark hole at the.
Speaker 1: So there have it. Sci-fi makes black holes look remarkable and big and mystical. And the fact is, well type of the very same. Were only just scratching the surface, but this is one part of science [00:07:30] that might prove to be even cooler than science fiction. If you wan na know more about the deepest, darkest parts of our universe, then Ive linked a video I made on the James web area telescope. Its on the hunt for invisible light, from deep space. And if you wan na understand more about area, closer to home, then weve got that too. In the meantime, make sure you like and subscribe and strike me up in the remarks. If you wan na understand anything more about area or you want any cool ideas explained until [ 00:08:00] next time Im Claire Riley for CNET.