The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is set to announce on Wednesday, April 10, a major landmark regarding black holes. This has set tongues wagging that the first ever image of a black hole, or the event horizon surrounding one, is about to be released. But what exactly is a black hole?
The mysterious entities would be more at home in the realm of science fiction rather than fact, as they completely defy the laws of physics, but they do exist.
Black holes have never been directly observed but by the way space acts around them, scientists have been able to determine that they probably do exist.
However, that could be about to change with the announcement on Wednesday.
A black hole is a point in spacetime where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light – the fastest thing in the universe – as vast amounts of mass are squashed into an infinitesimal point.
There are a few ways in which a black hole can form.
Scientists believe the most common instance is when a star, thousands of times the size of our sun, collapses in on itself when it dies – known as a supernova.
Another way is when a large amount of matter, which can be in the form of a gas cloud or a star collapses in on itself through its own gravitational pull.
Finally, the collision of two neutron stars can cause a black hole.
The gist of all three ways is that a massive amount of mass located in one spot can cause a black hole.
Experts believe that at the centre of a black hole, spacetime curves into infinity – which was dubbed a “singularity”.
No matter can escape from the singularity, where it is squashed under the black hole’s intense gravitational pull.
Gravity effects light so as the light is sucked back in to the black hole, time slows down to the point which it stops.
So, for example, a ticking clock falling into a black hole would tick slower and slower until it stops and would take an infinite amount of time to reach the black hole.
However, before entering the singularity, you would have to pass the even horizon, which is the point of no return.
Black holes are, by their very nature, impossible to see, since they eat up all light, making it impossible for any to reach us on Earth.
So while we can understand black holes by proxy, because of the way they affect the space that surrounds them, they cannot be directly seen, which is why it has been so difficult to photograph one.
But the ESO telescope hopes to capture an image of the event horizon – the point at their edge where light cannot escape.
The main press conference will take place on April 10, in Brussels, at 3.00pm CET.