Re-analysis of black hole data proves iconic ring shape really is there
The original black hole image (left) and the new image (right) S. Diakogiannis; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation/EHT collaboration When the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team released their first image of a black hole in 2019, the astrophysics community was abuzz: the image of black hole M87* showed a perfect ring structure, just as predicted by the theory of general relativity.
The original black hole image (left) and the new image (right) S. Diakogiannis; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation/EHT collaboration When the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team released their first image of a black hole in 2019, the astrophysics community was abuzz: the image of black hole M87* showed a perfect ring structure, just as predicted by the theory of general relativity. As other teams reanalysed the data in the following years, though, scepticism about the image began to slip in. A new, completely independent analysis has now finally banished that scepticism. The now-iconic doughnut shape of the EHT image is caused by a key property of general relativity, the way that light bends in the presence of an extremely massive object. Observing it for real was one of the strongest pieces of evidence that general relativity is accurate. Hubble Space Telescope is falling to Earth – should NASA save it?
Edited from New Scientist Space RSS for the Mars Colonization desk.
Edited by the news editor with AI from the original report — please refer to the original source.