If a star has three times or more the core mass of our Sun and collapses, it can form a black hole.
![universe blackhole universe blackhole](https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/images/content/561702main_cdfs_black_hole_3300x2201.jpg)
Stellar black holes have the mass of a dozen or so suns, but supermassive black holes, like the one first imaged by EHT, have the mass of many millions of suns. This boundary is called the "event horizon." Anything that comes within a black hole’s event horizon would be consumed because of the black hole’s unimaginably strong gravity.
![universe blackhole universe blackhole](https://dm0qx8t0i9gc9.cloudfront.net/thumbnails/video/S-qZRAdPiqqgmzw2/videoblocks-black-hole-at-the-centre-of-our-universe_bvzsmnlqne_thumbnail-1080_01.png)
There is simply a region, or boundary, in space around a black hole beyond which we cannot see. Chandra has revealed how black holes impact their environments, how they behave, and their role in helping shape the evolution of the cosmos.Ī black hole does not have a surface in the usual sense of the word. X-ray telescopes like Chandra can see superheated matter that is swirling toward the event horizon of a black hole. As part of this effort, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Neil Gehrels SwiftObservatory space telescope missions, all attuned to different varieties of X-ray light, turned their gaze to the M87 black hole around the same time as the Event Horizon Telescope in April 2017. To complement the EHT findings, several NASA spacecraft were part of a large effort, coordinated by the EHT’s Multiwavelength Working Group, to observe the black hole using different wavelengths of light. The gravity is so strong because matter (the mass) has been squeezed into a tiny space. Black holes are thought to result from the collapse of very massive stars at the ends of their evolution. The EHT image relied on light in radio wavelengths and shows the black hole's shadow against the backdrop of high-energy material around it.Ī black hole is a dense, compact object whose gravitational pull is so strong that – within a certain distance of it – nothing can escape, not even light. includes the National Science Foundation. EHT is an international collaboration whose support in the U.S.
![universe blackhole universe blackhole](https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1505330/black-hole.jpg)
The boundary in space around a black hole is called the "event horizon."Ī black hole and its shadow were captured in an image for the first time (2019) in a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The gravity is so strong because their mass has been squeezed into a tiny space. Black holes are thought to result from the collapse of very massive stars. A black hole is a dense, compact object whose gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light.