Scientists focus on the invisible monsters of the universe, as BLACK HOLES GO TO THE MOVIES

→LOCATION

Black holes are invisible, but astronomers can observe and measure events that happen around the holes.

→SHOOTING

Thanks to a global network of telescopes, scientists can image black holes at increasingly high resolution.

→LEAD ROLE

The black hole at the centre of our Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, may hold answers to the mysteries of galaxy dynamics.

→OPENING NIGHT

Data from radio waves are stored on thousands of hard drives, and supercomputers piece the movie together.

In photographic terms, the image was not very impressive – a blurred circle of yellow and orange light with a round dark shadow at the centre. But it caused a sensation when it was published on 10 April 2019, because this was the first ever image taken of a black hole. Or to be more precise, it was an image of what surrounds a black hole, since the holes themselves are invisible, their immense gravity sucking in everything around them and preventing even light from escaping. Nevertheless, the image included such clear contours of the black hole that the astronomers behind the achievement could claim that they had for