Black Holes Caught on Camera

Human beings are intelligent and due to the intelligence they have the ability to capture images of objects that are millions of light years distant to the earth. You can also concur with it that this accomplishment seems impossible but it was done when scientists received the first image of a black hole. This to me is one of the biggest scientific contributions of our generation but in the real sense the majority of the people do not perceive the greatness of such an achievement. I am indicating that when the black hole image was published on the social media, people have seen it and moved on with their lives without reflecting on the decades of work that went into it. I am saying because human beings are the ones capable of observing the miracle of science and forgetting about it the very following day as they forget about the good deeds of other people. I would like to tell you about the black holes that were photographed and I have my own opinion concerning this topic basing on what I studied and what I witnessed.

A black hole is a space in the universe that the gravity is so massive such that nothing can escape it including light. Back then the black holes were mere concepts because they only existed in mathematical equations and the minds of scientists but none had seen it with their own eyes. My thoughts used to be that a black hole could never be seen again since by definition a black hole does not emit light therefore how can you take a photograph of something that is totally dark. However, the reality is that scientists were able to come up with a clever technique to take a picture of the black hole not of itself but of the surrounding glowing matter before it is sucked in. Such a brilliant ring of matter is what we observe in the known image of the black hole and that is referred to as the event horizon. I believe it is actually very beautiful in a frightening manner of looking at the very precipice of existence itself.

In 2019, a project known as the Event Horizon Telescope or EHT was able to capture the first image of a black hole. It might be odd that it is referred to as a telescope yet in actual sense it is not a single telescope but rather a combination of radio telescopes located throughout the entire planet that are in unison. I find it astounding in the sense that even in various parts of the world the telescopes of various nations pointed at the same object in space and produced data in real time. In addition to this the volume of data gathered was so enormous that it could not be transferred through the internet thus hard drives needed to be flown by air to a central location where they were processed. Therefore somehow it can be said that to create a picture of a black hole was not only a scientific genius but also a cooperation between nations and patience which these days are not very common among people.

The photographed black hole lies on a galaxy known as Messier 87 or M87 that is approximately 55 million light years away on earth. This black hole is supermassive that is, it has a mass of 6.5 billion suns. I did not realize how huge that really is during the olden times but after reading about it multiple times I understood that even our solar system could be consumed by this one black hole and there would still be space. I did not find it hard to grasp the concepts of space once but numerous times due to the fact that human minds are not programmed to perceive such large distances and magnitude. They were the scientists who devoted their whole career to the study of black holes without ever having the chance to see its formation and only later in their life, technology managed to keep pace and made it possible to have an image in their eyes. These scientists were not celebrated in a proper manner and instead all the media attention they got was very short and after that they were forgotten as a memory by everybody, which made me remember how un-grateful the society is towards individuals who devote their lives to knowledge.

In 2022, scientists have taken an image of another black hole which scientists had been very close to home after the first image of a black hole in 2019. The second black hole photographed is Sagittarius A star or Sgr A star that is located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. As I see it, it is very interesting and disturbing to see the black hole at the centre of our galaxy as it implies that we are only existing in a galaxy that has a cosmic monster at the centre that is slowly eating anything that gets too close to it. However, simultaneously this black hole is approximately 26,000 light years distant of the earth therefore we can not worry yet. I understood that, although black holes are perilous, they are equally distant as we do not have to fear being sucked. Then I decided that the black holes are not dangerous to humanity and interesting to study. And so will I be able to enjoy the science without vain apprehensions.

The importance of attempting to take black holes on camera is not merely a picture with a beautiful view. Such pictures make scientists know how black holes expand and influence their other galaxies and the way in which gravity functions under extreme circumstances. In addition to that the research on black holes could uncover mysteries about the nature of space and time itself. Whether people like it or not scientists will still study black holes since real curiosity is not agendas of the populace but out of true curiosity.

They did not realize that the images of these black holes are revolutionary and when they treat them as another viral picture, it is human ignorance. I suppose that it is better to think about the universe than get likes on the social media and doing it is not bad as far as I am concerned.

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