But we are working on a solution to see right up to the event horizon. The only way we know of their existence is to observe their effects on light and other objects. There’s no way to bring back light from beyond the event horizon-the point at which light itself is irrecoverably lost to the object’s gravity. The black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 is even larger, billions of times more massive than the Sun.īlack holes themselves are fundamentally unseeable. It is a monster that lurks at the center of the Milky Way and has been observed tearing apart and devouring stars that venture too close. The nearest supermassive black hole, known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star) is about four million times the mass of the sun. Strangely, we have not found any confirmed medium-sized black holes. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory observes X-rays from material falling into a black hole as it heats up to millions of degrees and the gravity is sufficient to stretch apart an unfortunate passerby in a process known as “spaghettification.”Īll of the black holes we know about are either a few times more massive than the Sun, or supermassive, millions to billions of times more massive than the Sun. There is a lot we don’t know about black holes. For example, what happens at the center of a black hole? Or, how do the biggest black holes form? And how do these giant black holes and their host galaxies coexist?īut this much is clear-you wouldn’t want to see one up close. Scientists have been studying black hole accretion flows for many years using state-of-art numerical simulations, which allow us to properly follow the black hole physics and evolution of magnetic fields. The Institute for Theory and Computation also models, among many black hole research topics, the high-energy conditions that occur when gas clouds or stars fall onto a black hole. The research draws on astronomy, physics, mathematics, history of science, and philosophy to better understand these fascinating objects. The Black Hole Initiative joins CfA astronomers with other colleagues from Harvard University to form the first center in the world to focus on the study of black holes. CfA scientists monitor Sagittarius A* and are currently observing a star, or pair of stars, being shredded by the supermassive black hole. This high-energy radiation can penetrate obscuring gas and dust, giving us an X-ray view of the action. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory observes the X-rays from the superheated material falling onto the black hole. The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian works on all aspects of black hole research, across all wavelengths and scales, from the observational to the theoretical. Four more observatories, including CfA’s Greenland Telescope, are being added to the array for the next set of black hole images. The Event Horizon Telescope opens a new window to extreme physics at the edge of a black hole. These observations revealed the strong effects of gravity expected near a black hole and observed matter orbiting at near light speeds. In 2017, eight radio observatories, including the CfA’s Submillimeter Array, were linked to create an Earth-sized interferometer. Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian led the effort that created the first image of matter near the event horizon of M87’s supermassive black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope.
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