There’s an enormous black hole lurking in this Nasa photo – can you find it?
SUPERMASSIVE black holes are such a huge force in the universe that you'd think they'd be easy to spot from a distance.
However, an image released by Nasa proves this is not the case as the black hole in the photo below can be hard to pinpoint.
The black hole in this image is within the bright elliptical galaxy called Messier 87 (M87).
If you look really closely to the upper left-hand side of the picture you should be able to spot jets of brightness sprouting from the centre of a cloud-like glow.
These jet-like strands are gas and dust particles being pulled into the black hole, which give off heat during the process and can be captured by an infrared camera.
Earlier this year, a close up image of this black hole was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope for the first time ever.
The infrared image above was taken by the Spitzer Space telescope, which was focusing on M87 with its bright blue hues.
The jets of light sprouting from it are thought to spread for thousands of light-years.
Nasa annotated the image so it was easier for people to imagine the black hole in context.
The black hole, described by scientists as a "monster", is 24billion miles across - 3million times the size of the Earth.
Sitting about 300 million trillion miles away from our planet, it was photographed up close by a network of eight telescopes across the globe known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
When used together, the telescopes combine with the power of a single telescope "the size of our planet", scientists said.
The black hole is so far away, that taking the up close photo of it was equivalent to snapping a DVD on the surface of the moon.
Black holes are technically invisible because no light escapes from them but in certain circumstances, like in a bright galaxy, an outline of a black hole and the light it's swallowing can be seen.
What is a black hole? The key facts
Here's what you need to know...
What is a black hole?
- A black hole is a region of space where absolutely nothing can escape
- That's because they have extremely strong gravitational effects, which means once something goes into a black hole, it can't come back out
- They get their name because even light can't escape once it's been sucked in – which is why a black hole is completely dark
What is an event horizon?
- There has to be a point at which you're so close to a black hole you can't escape
- Otherwise literally everything in the universe would have been sucked into one
- The point at which you can no longer escape from a black hole's gravitational pull is called the event horizon
- The event horizon varies between different black holes, depending on their mass and size
What is a singularity?
- The gravitational singularity is the very centre of a black hole
- It's a one-dimensional point that contains an incredibly large mass in an infinitely small space
- At the singularity, space-time curves infinitely and the gravitational pull is infinitely strong
- Conventional laws of physics stop applying at this point
How are black holes created?
- Most black holes are made when a supergiant star dies
- This happens when stars run out of fuel – like hydrogen – to burn, causing the star to collapse
- When this happens, gravity pulls the centre of the star inwards quickly, and collapses into a tiny ball
- It expands and contracts until one final collapse, causing part of the star to collapse inward thanks to gravity, and the rest of the star to explode outwards
- The remaining central ball is extremely dense, and if it's especially dense, you get a black hole
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In other space news, a ‘cannibalistic’ nearby galaxy has devoured several of its neighbours and scientists think our Milky Way is next.
A planet so massive ‘it should not exist’ has been found by baffled astronomers in a nearby star system.
And, distant planets may host even more life than we have here on Earth, according to one shock study.
Did you spot the black hole? Let us know in the comments!
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