A collaboration of hundreds of scientists using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have been able to capture an image of a supermassive black hole in the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy.

The “telescope” is actually an array of numerous different telescopes in the U.S., South America, Europe, Greenland, and Antarctica.

As the EHT website says:

By linking together existing telescopes using novel systems, the EHT leverages considerable global investment to create a fundamentally new instrument with angular resolving power that is the highest possible from the surface of the Earth. Over the coming years, the international EHT team will mount observing campaigns of increasing resolving power and sensitivity, aiming to bring black holes into focus.

The scientists involved in the project released all the details in five different papers:

1. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole
2. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. II. Array and Instrumentation
3. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. III. Data Processing and Calibration
4. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Imaging the Central Supermassive Black Hole
5. First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. V. Physical Origin of the Asymmetric Ring

Also, here are a couple videos explaining things succinctly:

Featured image from Nature Articles