Capturing something generally believed to be unseeable on camera isn’t something that happens every day. So, when scientists say they captured a picture of a black hole, which has been considered to be unseeable, you’d think it’d be something incredible to see.
It turns out it’s a little underwhelming. But, it is the first image ever captured of a void in space that’s 6.5 billion times the size of our sun (yikes) so it can only get better from here, right?
The image was captured and released by the National Science Foundation and the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration on Wednesday.
“We have seen what we thought was unseeable,” said Shep Doeleman, an astronomer and director of the effort to capture the image.
While the image may not be what you’d expect, it is 55 million light years away, so it’s an incredible accomplishment — we’ve had trouble getting an in focus picture of our family every year at Christmas from 20 feet away.
And if you’re wondering what that light is around the dark spot? It’s just light bending around the hole as it tries and fails to escape.
Not terrifying at all.
