Thread by @almaobs

🧵[1/8] #Breakingnews For the first time #OurBlackHole SgrA* 🌀 in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way! @ehtelescope collaboration📡
#SgrABlackHole

🧵[2/8] We can’t see the #SgrABlackHole 🌀 itself, instead we see a bright ring of light around a dark central shadow. #OurBlackHole is 27,000 light years away from Earth, so in the sky it is about the same size as a donut on the Moon would be.

🧵[3/8] Astronomers had already observed stars orbiting around the compact, massive, ‘invisible’ SgrA*🌀, and suspected it to be a black hole. The EHT has zoomed-in to provide the first direct visual proof #OurBlackHole #SgrABlackHole

🧵 [4/8] #OurBlackhole SgrA* at the center of the Milky Way was sonified. It is a radar-like scan, starting from 12 o'clock and moving clockwise. #SgrABlackHole

🧵[5/8] Why did we see M87* first, not #OurBlackHole? SgrA* is much smaller than M87*. The brightness and pattern of the gas around SgrA* was changing rapidly as the EHT was observing it a bit like trying to take a clear picture of a puppy quickly chasing its tail.

🧵[6/8] #OurBlackHole The main results and analysis of the @ehtelescope observations of SgrA* have been released in 10 scientific papers: iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8…

🧵[7/8] An international collaboration of over 300 researchers from 80 institutes around the world took 5 years of intense work to combine all the SgrA*🌀 data, analyse it and compare is to simulations #OurBlackHole

🧵[8/8] ALMA’s📡 contribution is crucial to the @ehtelescope network, it is the world’s largest millimeter wave observatory and sits in a key location in the centre of the global network with generally excellent weather #OurBlackHole