Astronomers have today revealed the first ever picture of a real black hole in space.
This monumental event comes courtesy of the Event Horizon Telescope project, which used telescopes from all over the planet to observe the black hole, which resides around 54 million light years from Earth.
Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center… https://t.co/u6OrqQ5MoX— Event Horizon 'Scope (@Event Horizon 'Scope) 1554901691
The image was unveiled at news conferences in Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo, with the US National Science Foundation director France Cardova saying: "This is a huge day for astrophysics. We're seeing the unseeable."
The image is a far cry from the stereotypical image of a black hole that were are used to thanks to sci-fi movies, but it is impressive nonetheless due to the density and vast size of black holes, rendering them virtually impossible to observe.
Considering that this is such a huge moment for all of mankind, there is understandably a lot of reaction and yes, you've guessed, there are a lot of memes and jokes.
this is petty. upload a nice one of her https://t.co/QbmrCfyR3j— Beth McColl (@Beth McColl) 1554906041
Me online vs me irl https://t.co/z0ngvcFHNk— FilmLand Empire (@FilmLand Empire) 1554902689
unironically want to ride the black hole like a water slide plz do not reply with science reasons that I can’t— Frasier Gun (@Frasier Gun) 1554902909
what if the black hole is full of eye bees— Tom Phillips (@Tom Phillips) 1554903809
I am sure the spatial resolution of the #blackhole images will get better in future. https://t.co/uN9lmN9fGe— Fakhar Khalid (@Fakhar Khalid) 1554903542
https://t.co/5uO9DmpaD7— Tom Phillips (@Tom Phillips) 1554902606
Profile pic vs tagged pic https://t.co/QG3bwCk7q1— Ben Machell (@Ben Machell) 1554902275
What could possibly be at the centre of this vast entity?
This black hole pic is actually so mad we should have known really, but still. Wow. https://t.co/qWZOhitH6w— Megan Townsend (@Megan Townsend) 1554903336
Physicists have decoded a radio transmission emanating from the center of the black hole, science is truly amazing https://t.co/ALIYhweezF— Christopher Ingraham (@Christopher Ingraham) 1554904477
knew it https://t.co/h5r43V4IB6— IFLScience (@IFLScience) 1554904099
Here’s a close up for you https://t.co/m2ZmvcGdyd— Ali Plumb (@Ali Plumb) 1554906093
A lot of people thought it looked like the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
sauron really didn't have to flex on us like that https://t.co/Y3CKpAXHen— hungrybox (@hungrybox) 1554903276
NSF: Amazing first photo of black hole! This changes everything! Sauron: Mother? https://t.co/4ML5ytcZuX— Dr. Sarah Parcak (@Dr. Sarah Parcak) 1554902459
"Sauron has regained much of his former strength. He cannot yet take physical form, but his spirit has lost none of… https://t.co/tR9Ky2xfTU— 🌘 (@🌘) 1554903420
While we're all distracted by what Trump tweets every morning, scientists just released a photo of the literal Eye… https://t.co/OZX03xWg5E— Josh Jordan (@Josh Jordan) 1554905533
Sauron wasn't the only thing that it reminded people of.
The photo of the black hole is blurry, but if you zoom and enhance then you can see its full destructive power https://t.co/c1wPV0vmrC— Mark Doherty (@Mark Doherty) 1554905502
@heyjamiedrew @RachaelKrishna https://t.co/j6jaBwKrSy— Tom Mathias (@Tom Mathias) 1554903990
TETSUOOOOOO https://t.co/RxCSSPXyyC— 🇬🇠Carl Anka 🇬🇠(@🇬🇠Carl Anka 🇬ðŸ‡) 1554902716
you think that black hole image is good, wait till you see this video of the moon https://t.co/7C8lW6DPer— BBC Three (@BBC Three) 1554904481
The black hole is the Dark Souls dark sign. Does the universe have an easy mode? https://t.co/HMogOAlktV— Gene Park (@Gene Park) 1554904463
The black hole has real Pearl Jam Binaural vibes https://t.co/5lemZCUX59— Darren Richman (@Darren Richman) 1554906372
Some people want to... fight it?
My TL is half people saying they could fight the black hole and half people saying they want to be killed by the bl… https://t.co/u4hpwWQ7Yd— Rachael Krishna (@Rachael Krishna) 1554903192
There's a black hole out there, somewhere, wider than our whole solar system, more all conquering that anything we'… https://t.co/85cx01V5z6— 🇬🇠Carl Anka 🇬🇠(@🇬🇠Carl Anka 🇬ðŸ‡) 1554904059
Of course, there were the inevitable Brexit references.
Finally got to see the ERG's Brexit strategy paper https://t.co/Quhxi9ioIZ— David Lammy (@David Lammy) 1554904699
I think scientists discovering both Sauron's eye appearing over us and Cthulhu below the sea is more than enough ju… https://t.co/8LCHivxP0S— davidallengreen (@davidallengreen) 1554903468
The Brexit hole https://t.co/VWAZT2GEq9— Janey Godley (@Janey Godley) 1554903194