Waterloo region team helps create first image of Milky Way's black hole

Astronomers have captured the first image of the Milky Way's black hole, and a group based out of Waterloo Region played a key part in interpreting the data.

"What’s more cool than seeing the black hole at the centre of Milky Way?" said Katherine L. Bouman, an Assistant Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Electrical Engineering and Astronomy at Caltech, after the unveiling.

The black hole, called Sagittarius A(*), has four million times of the mass of our sun and is located 27,000 light years away from Earth.

Its gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape its force.

"That’s incredible," said Michael Johnson, an Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & the Smithsonian. "And there was doubt for black holes for decades after they were first derived as a mathematical solution. Everyone kind of assumed they'd evaporate once we understood more."

Sagittarius A(*) is the second black hole to ever be photographed.

MORE: Astronomers capture 1st image of Milky Way's huge black hole

Avery Broderick, a University of Waterloo researcher and Perimeter Institute faculty member, helped discover the first black hole in 2019. He's still on the international team that created the image of the Milky Way's powerful core.

"It is revealed in silhouette, against a luminous plasma, showing a shadow wreathed in light," he said. "We are super excited to show the second black hole ever imaged."

Broderick's role in the Horizon Telescope collaboration was at the forefront of the image analysis work.

He and his team successfully used methods based on probability to identify the unique features of Sagittarius A(*).

"Took nearly 15 years to get enough telescopes into the fold so that we could join them together," Broderick said.

When comparing the first documented black hole to Sagittarius A(*), he said the first one is 1,500 times bigger and 53 million light years away.

"It is sitting in a typical galaxy instead of at the heart of a super cluster," explained Broderick.

Experts have only begun to scratch the surface. They have their targets set on finding more black holes in the future, but added that there is a lot to learn just from these two black holes.

Broderick said they will be working on refining conclusions about gravity and will also try expand their knowledge about how material flows into the black hole.

"The Sag A(*) changes every 15 minutes. That was one of the chief difficulties that took three years to solve," he said.

While black holes are known to gobble up galactic material, Sagittarius A(*) seems to be on a so-called 'starvation diet' with only a little material falling into the centre.