Black hole in the Milky Way: How big it is – first image explained

Scientists have published the first look at a monster black hole discovered in the Milky Way.

Discovered by an international team at the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT Collaboration), the supermassive black hole has been named Sagittarius A.

Taking to Twitter to share their discovery, the EHT Collaboration posted: “Meet the Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy! Astronomers have revealed the first image of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.”

Here’s everything you need to know about what a black hole is – and what supermassive Sagittarius A really is!

Often considered a work of science fiction, black holes are real – and this photo proves it.

A black hole appears in a region of space where matter has collapsed into itself.

The force of gravity is so strong that no light can get through.

Black holes are thought to form after stars die, but the actual cause is unknown.

They are invisible and can only be seen in space by telescopes with tools that identify them.

Black holes are discovered by studying how they interact in space, because they behave differently from other stars due to the gravity around them.

The team has published images of black holes before.

In 2019, they shared another black hole – called Messier 87 – located in another galaxy and measuring a whopping 6.5 billion times the mass of our Sun.

This is the first time they have detected and photographed a black hole in our galaxy.

The image shows the dark, central region, where there is a hole, and is surrounded by light coming from strong gravity.

Speaking to BBC News, EHT’s Dutch member Professor Heino Falcke said of the discovery: “This new image is very special because it’s our supermassive black hole.”

He added: “This is ‘our backyard’, and if you want to understand black holes and how they work, this is the one that will tell you because we see it in great detail.”

The black hole, named Sagittarius A, has been dubbed a “monster” and described as supermassive.

Its size is estimated to be 4 million times larger than our Sun.

To do that, the black hole ring is estimated to be about the size of Mercury’s orbit around our sun, which is equivalent to 40 million miles.

There’s no need to panic, as this monstrous black hole is nowhere near earth.

The black hole is located more than 26,000 light-years away, so there is no threat of it affecting us.

However, this is the first time a black hole has been photographed in our galaxy.