Detailed image of supermassive black hole shows its powerful jet
New ScientistMAY 2023
Beyond the historic nature of this imaging — on par with Apollo 8's "Earthrise" — studying black holes is immensely important to understand how gravity and general relativity work under the most extreme conditions and the idea of the so-called "one-way door from our universe." The discovery of these celestial giants, which comes over a century after Albert Einstein theorized about them, shows that humanity is one step closer to figuring out the cosmic mystery that has baffled physicists for decades.
Black holes are the hardest-to-see objects in the universe because they don't reflect or emit any light, which is why each new black hole discovery is historic and exciting. However, quantitative evidence of black holes is still missing, and scientists still haven't recorded two supermassive black holes merging or figured out how the process warps time. These discoveries could happen soon, but the global curiosity surrounding these questions won't be quenched until they do.