Tracking a Black Hole

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Tracking a Black Hole

Graphic showing path of black hole XTE J1118+480 and its companion

Orbital path (red line) of black hole XTE J1118+480 and its companion through the Milky Way Galaxy over the past 230 million years. Yellow circle indicates the Sun's current position.

Credit: I. Rodrigues and I.F. Mirabel, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Technical Details
Telescope	VLBA
Band	VLBA 2; VLBA 4
Date	-

Black Holes

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More Black Holes Images & Videos

Jansky Lecture – Dr. Françoise Combes

First image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way

This is the first image of Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A* for short), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It’s the first direct visual evidence of the presence of this black hole. It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array which linked together eight existing radio observatories across the planet to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope. The telescope is named after the “event horizon”, the boundary of the black hole beyond which no light can escape.

Although we cannot see the event horizon itself, because it cannot emit light, glowing gas orbiting around the black hole reveals a telltale signature: a dark central region (called a “shadow”) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure. The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun. The image of the Sgr A* black hole is an average of the different images the EHT Collaboration has extracted from its 2017 observations.

Monster at the Heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, Sgr A*

Helical Jets of M87

Quasar Distance Record

The Baseline 7: Mapping The Radio Sky

NRAO’s Baseline Episode 3: Viewing Active Galaxies

NRAO’s Baseline Episode 2: A Black Hole Eats A Star

Double Boomerang

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