–Special Report–

First Black Hole Photograph

Professor David Helfand / Columbia University

Last week, for the first time ever, astronomers have captured an image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.  Black holes don’t emit light, but the image shows its shadow surrounded by a bright ring – with a mass of roughly 4 million times the sun, the black hole’s immense gravitational pull is strong enough to bend even light around it, forming the ring captured in the image.  Columbia University Professor David Helfand’s Special Report explains in more detail, from Isacc Newton, to Albert Einstein, to last week’s photo.