Breakthrough discovery in astronomy: first ever image of a black hole

On 10 April 2019 at 15:00 CEST (Brussels time) the European Commission presented a groundbreaking discovery by Event Horizon Telescope an international scientific collaboration aiming to capture the first image of a black hole by creating a virtual Earthsized telescope. EUfunded researchers play a key role in the project. Black holes are extremely compressed cosmic objects, containing incredible amounts of mass within a tiny region. Their presence affects their surroundings in extreme ways, by warping spacetime and superheating any material falling into it. The captured image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. This black hole is located 55 million lightyears from Earth and has a mass 6. 5billion times larger than our sun. Six press conferences around the world took place simultaneously. In Europe, Commissioner Moedas and lead scientists funded by the European Research Council held a press conference in Brussels to unveil the discovery.