SHANGHAI, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese astronomers have made contributions to a global effort to capture the first-ever image of a supermassive black hole at the heart of the distant galaxy M87.
The image of the black hole, based on observations through the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration, was unveiled in coordinated press conferences across the globe at around 9:00 p.m. (Beijing time) on Wednesday.
The image shows a crescent-shaped, ring-like structure with a dark central region -- the black hole's shadow.
The black hole revealed is at the center of M87, about 55 million light-years from Earth, with a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.
'This is the first direct visual evidence about black holes obtained by humans, confirming that Einstein's theory of general relativity still holds in extreme conditions,' said Shen Zhiqiang, head of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SAO).
Black holes are extraordinary cosmic objects with enormous masses but extremely compact sizes, producing such gravitational force that not even light can escape. The presence of these objects affects their environment in extreme ways, warping spacetime and super-heating any surrounding material.