First digitally enhanced photo of a black hole is impressive; See!

In 2019, the world received one of the most important images in the history of humanity. Thanks to the efforts of several scientists, it was possible to capture the first photo of a black hole, one of the most intriguing phenomena in our universe.

But after all, what is so difficult about capturing a photo of a black hole? Isn’t it enough to point the telescope at the sky and take a photo of the celestial body, just like we do with the stars?

In a simple answer, no! Black holes are celestial objects of such great density and massiveness that the distortion they generate in space-time attracts EVERYTHING around them, including light. That is exactly why they are called black holes, because not even light has the capacity to escape their immeasurable gravity.

Considering that photos are photons captured by a lens that makes it possible for us to see them, then, whether for a photo, or for our own eyes, it is only possible to see if there is light. Therefore, in order to be able to “see” a black hole, it is very complicated to create a calculation in order to, basically, “find” it in space.

However, thanks to the clouds of glowing gas that form around the phenomenon, it was possible to find it and determine its shape.

These gas clouds are formed by matter being pulled at an extraordinary force, which consequently heats it to a temperature higher than the Sun’s core, therefore generating the glow we can see.

Defined image of the first black hole photographed

Even though we’ve managed to capture the first photo of a black hole, that doesn’t mean the study stops there. Recently, the Institute for Advanced Study revealed the first “higher definition” photo of a black hole.

Considering that the first photo of a black hole was obtained using data from several radio telescopes spread across our planet, it was to be expected that some part of the image would be “out of focus”.

Although the photo of the black hole M87* (read: star M87) has an extremely high resolution, it still looks “blurry” to us. However, this happens because the radiation (light) present in the gas clouds does not allow for perfect images.

What happens is that radio telescopes combine several “images” into one, to form the photo we see. In this way, some details could be “missing”.

Thus, recently, research by Brazilian astrophysicist Lia Medeiros enabled Machine Learning software to find the “gaps” in the image.

The software was then able to estimate which images were missing and produce them digitally. This gave us a clearer image of the black hole M87*. In the image below, we can see the original image on the left, and the image reproduced with better resolution on the right.

Thanks to this, we have less distortion caused by radiation from the gas cloud, enabling a better understanding of the center of the singularity, that is, the “black” part of the celestial body.