How Close are Scientists to Photographing a Black Hole?

If someone clicks photograph by camera really do take a little piece of your soul, what happens when you point the camera at a super massive black hole? I’d bet most of us are willing to find out. Scientists from around the world brought us one step closer to viewing a black hole by coordinating their observations and effectively turning our planet into one giant telescope.The scientists are planning to capture the first ever photo of a black hole’s event horizon (the boundary of no return that light can’t event escape).

This project is known as the Event Horizon Telescope, and it uses a network of 9 radio telescopes found across the world that will be pointed at Sagittarius A*, the black hole 25,000 light years away at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.Scientists are expecting that calculations and preparations are done, and that they’re aiming to shoot the groundbreaking photo sometime later this year or early 2018 and can move forward from the days of relying on illustrations and theories to get a sense of black holes.

Here is the close view of a black hole that was computer generated for the movie Interstellar (created under the guidance of renowned astrophysicist Kip Thorne). Capturing an actual photo of a black hole will further help the scientist to study the Einstein’s general theory of relativity. So it will take a few months to find out if the astronomers really have managed to take a photo of a black hole.

Links 1, 2