Black holes were first suggested by Albert Einstein's General Theory
of Relativity. Decades of research and observations have provided
evidence of their existence, but it has never been possible to directly
observe and image one.
Taking a picture of a black hole, an object so gravitationally bound
that not even photons of light can escape, sounds like an oxymoron, but
astronomers this week will attempt to do just that.
What they're hoping to glimpse is something called the "event
horizon" -- the swirl of matter and energy that are visible around the
rim of the black hole just before it falls into the abyss.
Image: Computer-generated image of a black hole from above. Light
would be visually distorted by the black hole's immense gravity. Credit:
Alain Riazuelo/NASA
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