US: Astronomers announce 'groundbreaking' revelation about Milky Way galaxy is imminent

The team responsible for producing the first direct image of a black hole is ready for another milestone - a 'groundbreaking' revelation about the center of the milky way galaxy.

According to an official release by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team will collaborate with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to make the announcement at a press conference on May 12. The National Science Foundation (NSF) conference will be organised in Washington DC at 6:30 pm (IST).

What new mystery would the ETH uncover?

While it cannot be accurately predicted what the ETH might present next, many experts say that the revelation would be about Saggitarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the milky way's galactic center.

This entity, which sits about 25,000 light-years from Earth and is 4.3 million times more massive than the sun, has been an exploratory target for about five years now. In contrast, the black hole imaged by the ETH team in 2019 is located in the Messier 87 galaxy and is located 55 million light-years away from Earth. 

Surprisingly, the behemoth is 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun, and it took eight ground-based radio telescopes around the globe to capture it.

How to watch the press conference?

As mentioned, the press conference will begin at 6:30 pm (IST) on May 12, wherein NSF's Chief Operating Officer Karen Marrongelle will deliver the opening remarks. Following the press conference, the ESO will also host an online event on the same platform and will conduct an interactive live question and answer session.

The first directly imaged black hole

(Image: NASA)

Although scientists have previously studied a jet extending more than 1,000 light-years away from M87's center, it was in 2019 when they were able to photograph the galaxy's black hole.

"Years ago, we thought we would have to build a very large space telescope to image a black hole. By getting radio telescopes around the world to work in concert like one instrument, the EHT team achieved this, decades ahead of time", Paul Hertz from NASA had said in a statement.