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Scientists Try to Take the First Ever Picture of a Black Hole

Jan 22, 2012; 10:49 PM ET

Astronomers, physicists and other scientists from across the world convened in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 18-20 to discuss an endeavor that only a few years ago would have been regarded as nothing less than outrageous.

First postulated by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, the existence of black holes has since been supported by decades' worth of observations, measurements and experiments. But never has it been possible to directly observe and photograph these phenomena whose sheer gravity exerts such immense power that it twists and mangles the very fabric of space and time.

The field of gravity around a black hole is so strong that it swallows everything in its reach; not even light can escape its grip. For that reason, black holes are just that, black, they emit no light whatsoever, their "nothingness" blends into the darkness of the universe.

So how does one take a picture of something that by definition is impossible to see?

Basically, as dust and gas swirls around the black hole before it is drawn inside, a kind of cosmic traffic jam ensues. The resulting friction turns these particles into plasma heated to a billion degrees or more, causing it to �glow' and radiate energy that we can detect here on Earth as different types of radiation.

By imagining the glow of matter swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge and plunges into the unknowns of space and time, scientists can see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow. Because the laws of physics either don't apply to or cannot describe what happens beyond that point of no return from which not even light can escape, that boundary is called the Event Horizon. So they are basically hoping to take a picture of this shadow, not exactly the black hole itself.

Black holes remain among the least understood phenomena in the universe. Ranging in mass from a few times the mass of the sun to billions, they appear to coalesce like drops of oil in water. Most if not all galaxies are now believed to harbor a super-massive black hole at their center, and smaller ones are scattered throughout. Our Milky Way is known to be home to about 25 smallish black holes ranging from 5 to 10 times the sun's mass.

This star-studded infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Milky Way's churning center. In this false-color image, old, cool stars appear blue, and the dust near hot, massive stars is red. Astronomers believe there is a super-massive black hole in the galaxy's core, visible here as a bright white spot.

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About This Blog

Mark Paquette
The AccuWeather.com astronomy blog, by Mark Paquette, discusses stargazing and astronomy issues and how the weather will interact with current astronomy events.