The first-ever image of a black hole in space is here. This is quite a contradiction because nothing can escape a black hole, not even light, and without light we have no images. So how, then, can this be?
First, let’s talk about what a black hole is and how they are created. A black hole is created when a big-enough star dies and its mass collapses onto itself. The creation of a black hole is something difficult to comprehend. For example, suppose our Sun became a black hole. If this happened, the Sun, which is 1.3 million-times the size of Earth, would collapse into a black hole the size of a large city. The video below does a great job illustrating this.
Now, let’s talk about how, if all matter is absorbed by a black hole, we were able to get this image. For this, take a look at Veritasium’s video below.
So what we are seeing is not the black hole, rather a disc of glowing gas around the black hole itself. The black hole cannot be seen, because seeing it requires light, and nothing can escape a black hole, not even photons.
