#EHT #space #blackHoles #Earth #lightyears #telescopes
From today April 5, to April 14, astronomers will use a system of radio telescopes around the world to peer at the gigantic black hole at the center of the Milky Way, a behemoth called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) that’s 4 million times more massive than the sun. The black hole is supposedly 26,000 light years away from the Earth.
The interior of a black hole, as you know, sucks everything in. So not even light can escape a black hole, which is the reason it can never be imaged. However, the researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst intend to understand a lot more about black holes with the data from this project. The project is being called Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and will be linking observatories in Hawaii, Arizona, California, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica to create the equivalent of a radio instrument the size of the entire Earth.
EHT will also be observing another super-massive black hole, 6 billion times the mass of our Sun, which is 53.5 million light years away. Hence, it is easier to observe than the Sgr A* because of such a massive size.
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