Photographing the Impossible

Black holes have long captivated human imagination.

- HRITHIK KIRAN BAGADE

These mysterious objects, predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, represent a region of space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape its grasp. For decades, they existed primarily in the realm of theory and indirect observation, glimpsed only through the effects they exerted on nearby stars and gas. We could infer their presence through X-rays emitted by matter being torn apart at their edges, or by watching stars whip around unseen centers.

But actually, seeing one—capturing an image of that dark heart in the sky—seemed an almost impossible feat. That changed on April 10, 2019, when scientists unveiled the first ever image of a black hole, a historic breakthrough that pushed the boundaries of technology, global collaboration, and human curiosity. It was a moment when theory stepped into the realm of visual proof, and the cosmos revealed one of its most hidden secrets.

The black hole in question lies at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87), about 55 million light-years from Earth. It is a gargantuan, supergiant galaxy, about 6.5 billion times the mass of our Sun. This cosmic behemoth is surrounded by a glowing halo of superheated gas, and at its center lies the event horizon, the point beyond which nothing can return. Because black holes do not emit light, they cannot be photographed in the traditional sense. What we see in the image is actually the shadow cast against the bright backdrop of the accretion disc—material spiralling into it, glowing fiercely from friction and gravitational compression.

This shadow appears as a dark central region encircled by a bright ring, a structure that matches exactly what Einstein's equations predicted.