On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
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 8,000- 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, 2005, Nature.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
