要拍攝吞噬光線的物體極其困難，但科學家們終于做到了。

事件視界望遠鏡（EHT）是一個國際團隊，聯合了世界各地的八個射電天文臺，組合形成了巨大的望遠鏡，也成功捕捉到有史以來第一張黑洞的圖像。周三上午，這張類似于《指環王》電影里索倫之眼的照片向全球公布。

圖像中的物體位于Messier 87星系內，距離地球5500萬光年，這是科學家們第一次有機會觀察黑洞，不用再靠模擬。

此事肯定會變成辦公室討論的焦點，所以有必要了解一些相關知識，在跟同事討論時可以隨口插上幾句，確保跟上進度。

什么是黑洞？宇宙中有多少？

黑洞是恒星坍塌后密度極大的殘余物。黑洞的引力極強，任何物質或光只要離得太近都無法逃脫。

但黑洞也不像科幻電影里那樣罕見。科學家估計，僅在我們生活的星系里就有1億個黑洞，不過距離地球都很遠，所以不必擔心。

黑洞有多大？

Messier 87黑洞很大。真的巨大。如果把太陽放在旁邊，只是個小斑點（其實永遠看不到這一畫面，因為引力太大了，太陽的光無法逃脫）。

科學家們說該黑洞大小跟海王星軌道差不多，而海王星繞太陽轉一周要200年。

黑洞對附近的行星有何影響？

黑洞內的行星很可能會被引力壓碎，不過實際情形只存在理論模擬。如果一顆行星繞著黑洞運行但距離足夠遠，能夠逃脫引力呢？

你最好抓穩什么東西再往下看。

麻省理工學院草堆天文臺的研究科學家杰弗里·克魯說，由于黑洞巨大，行星只用一周或更短時間便可繞行軌道一圈。不過該行星速度將達到光速。真想體驗的話，最好帶上暈車藥。

拍攝黑洞的照片有多難？

集合八家天文臺的射電望遠鏡一起工作都還不夠。因為黑洞比宇宙中的任何射電來源都要“小和黑暗”，所以各天文臺必須同步，各種條件也得恰到好處。

“拍到黑洞的圖像還要放大，或者相當于從巴黎路邊咖啡館觀測紐約一部手機上文本的‘角分辨率’。”官方人士表示。

下一步怎么做？

用科學家的話來說，目前已經收集到“海量”數據進行研究。每個天文臺都接收到約100萬GB的數據。而且從目前來看，各家希望繼續合作。

“我們已經證明事件視界望遠鏡可以實現在視界面觀測黑洞。”事件視界望遠鏡圖像小組的聯合負責人秋山一矩說。“這是黑洞天體物理學新時代的曙光。”（財富中文網）

譯者：夏林

It’s pretty hard to photograph something that devours light, but scientists have finally managed to do so.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an international consortium that linked eight radio observatories around the world to create an enormous telescope, has managed to capture the first-ever image of black hole. The shot, which resembled the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings films, was released globally Wednesday morning.

Located inside the Messier 87, a galaxy that’s 55 million light years from Earth, the image of the cosmic phenomenon is the first chance scientists have had to observe a black hole, beyond their own simulations.

It’s definitely the water cooler conversation of the day. So here are a few facts to drop on your coworkers, just in case you’re not fully up to speed on the project.

What is a black hole? And how many are there in the universe?

A black hole is the super-dense remnants of a collapsed star. The gravitational forces of them are so strong that nothing, neither matter nor light, can escape once it gets too close.

They’re not as uncommon as science fiction films might have you believe, either. Scientists estimate there are 100 million in our galaxy alone, though none are close enough to earth to be a concern.

How big is this black hole?

The Messier 87 black hole is big. Really big. The sun would be a speck next to it (although you’d never know that, since the gravity pull is so strong the sun’s light couldn’t escape).

Scientists say it’s about the size of Neptune’s orbit. And Neptune takes 200 years to revolve around the sun.

How would it affect nearby planets?

Exactly what would happen to a planet within the black hole is still theoretical, though it would likely be crushed by the gravity. But what if a planet was orbiting the black hole, yet far enough away to escape it’s pull?

You’d have to hold onto something.

Despite the black hole’s size, an orbiting planet would circumnavigate it in a week or less, says Geoffrey Crew, research scientist MIT’s Haystack Observatory. And that planet would be traveling at the speed of light. Bring Dramamine if you visit.

How hard was it to get a picture of the black hole?

This was more than getting eight facilities with radio telescopes to work together. Because a black hole is “infinitely smaller and darker” than any radio source in the sky, the observatories had to be synchronized and conditions had to be just right.

“Making a picture of a black hole also requires a magnification, or ‘angular resolution,’ equivalent to reading a text on a phone in New York from a sidewalk café in Paris,” say officials.

What’s next?

Scientists gathered, in their own words, “gobs” of data to pore through. Each of the eight observation stations took in one petabyte of information, roughly 1 million gigabytes each. And, from the sound of things, they’re looking to keep working together.

“We’ve demonstrated that the EHT is the observatory to see a black hole on an event horizon scale,” says Kazunori Akiyama, co-leader of the EHT imaging group. “This is the dawn of a new era of black hole astrophysics.”