The phenomenon known as a black hole was predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Any previous drawings are only models based on scientist's prediction of how a black hole would look like. But now, scientists have captured the real thing.
Credit: bbc.com
You can read the news here or see the full press conference by the team that captured the image, here.
The image may not looked like much. But what it does is that it confirmed the existence of black holes with actual image. It contributed to our understanding of the universe and how the universe works.
The image was captured by a team of about 200 scientists from all over the world. The team was called the Event Horizon Telescope project.
To capture the black hole in a galaxy about 55 millions light-years away, you would need a telescope as big as the Earth. We do not have a telescope that size. But what we do have are many powerful, high altitude telescopes spread across all over the Earth. When you combined their observation power in the same direction, you get an Earth-sized telescope. (Obviously, I am over-simplifying this, but if you want to understand further, click on the youtube video above.)
What does this mean for the rest of us humans and Earth?
Well, scientists predicted that there is a black hole in the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy. And since black holes suck everything around them, this means that, eventually, our own galaxy, including our own solar system, will collapse into that black hole.
So, Armageddon is coming.
But do not worry.
This will not happen soon, it will only happen, trillions of years, if not billions, in the future.
By that time, planet Earth would have been dead already from the dying Sun.
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