How we captured first image of the supermassive black hole at centre of the Milky Way

By Derek Ward-Thompson, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Central Lancashire

Black holes are among the most profound predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Originally studied as a mere mathematical consequence of the theory rather than as physically relevant objects, they soon became thought of as generic and sometimes inevitable outcomes of the gravitational collapse that initially forms a galaxy.

In fact, most physicists have suspected that our own galaxy revolves around a supermassive black hole at its centre. There are other ideas too – such as “dark matter” (an invisible substance thought to make up most of the matter in the universe).…

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