Telescopes will never peer
inside a light-swallowing
black hole, but they could
soon reveal the event
horizon, the surface
beyond which a
black hole traps
light permanently.
The horizon would
absorb light originating
from behind
a black hole, creating
a shadow visible at
high enough resolution.
Around the shadow would
be a bright ring of focused
light, like the corona in an eclipse.
Astronomers recently acquired the sharpest
image yet of the object presumed to be our
galaxy’s central black hole, thanks to the
Very Long Base line
Array, an 8,-
kilometer-wide system
of 10 radio telescopes.
Boosting such
telescopes’ resolution just
four times should clarify the
event horizon within the decade,
according to a commentary published with
the November 3, ,