Guys guys guys guys guys GUYYYYYYS

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Space Space Space! Time! TIME AND SPACE! SPACE AND TIME!

Y’all.

The Event Horizons Telescope(EHT) used images from 6 telescopes on 5 continents to create one image taken of light from 54 million years ago of a black hole that contains 6.5 billion times the amount of mass our sun.

To understand what an accomplishment that is, and to put it in perspective, the amount of data needed to take this one singular blurry image was over 5 petabytes, 5120 terabytes, over 5.2 million gigabytes, or in common terms, a lot. This singular image is capturing a black hole with all the light around it. It has been theorized that this light is from an absorbed star.

But y’all. This thing is 54 million light years away. 54 million. We see the light from our moon 1.3 seconds after it occurs. The moon is about 240,000 miles away. For every 1.3 seconds you see 240,000 miles away. Try an comprehend the fact that it took 54,000,000 years to get that light to here. So freaking far away.

The image proves Theory of Relativity, by showing light travels at the same speed through a vacuum.

While I love this image, it’s not as clear as I would like. This compilation of images was taken all the way back in 2017, and took that long to process. Last week, they did it again, twice, with 2 other supermassive black holes. I wouldn’t expect the results for a very long time.

The main Astrophysicist on the project actually gave a Ted talk on how to take a black hole and I encourage you to check it out.