Black holes

We Actually Photographed the Black Hole Eating Our Galaxy's Core

2026-08-05
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There's a monster at the centre of our galaxy — and we've seen it.

There's a monster at the centre of our galaxy — and we've seen it. Right at the heart of the Milky Way sits Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole carrying about four million times the mass of our Sun. Four million. Its gravity is so extreme that once anything crosses the event horizon — light included — nothing returns. For decades it was invisible to us, hidden behind clouds of dust and gas tens of thousands of light-years away. Then in 2022, a global network of radio telescopes working together as a single Earth-sized instrument captured the first image of its shadow. Not an artist's impression. An actual observation. And Sagittarius A* isn't unusual — nearly every large galaxy in the universe is thought to have one of these at its core, including ours. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, one true fact at a time.

OUR GALAXY'S SECRET

  • Sagittarius A*
  • sits at the Milky Way's core

4 MILLION SUNS

  • That's the mass
  • of our central black hole

NO ESCAPE

  • Past the event horizon
  • not even light gets out

FIRST IMAGE: 2022

  • A global telescope network
  • photographed its shadow

NOT JUST OURS

  • Nearly every large galaxy
  • hides one at its heart
Imagery: NASA (public domain) · View original on NASA ↗
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