The European Southern Observatory
(ESO) said Thursday that astronomers have for the first time
photographed the supermassive black hole at the centre of our
Milky Way galaxy, proving that the object is indeed a black
hole.
The image of the black hole, known as Sagittarius A, was
produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a
worldwide network of radio telescopes.
Experts from Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF),
National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), Naples' Federico
II University and Cagliari University took part.
"It's an extraordinary achievement that shows how important
international cooperation is in the scientific field and how
important it is for Italy to be part of it," said University and
Research Minister Maria Cristina Messa.
"We will only realize the importance of this extraordinary
result over time".
The new achievement comes after the EHT's release of the first
image of a black hole, called M87, at the centre of the more
distant Messier 87 galaxy, in 2019.
This research on the image of the Milky Way Black was presented
in six papers published on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal
Letters.
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