First ever image of black hole at center of galaxy made public

(WAND) - Scientists have revealed the first ever image of the supermassive black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The picture is only the second ever captured of a black hole. It shows a bright ring of glowing gas surrounding a void shaped like an oval. The object featured in the image, dubbed Sagittarius A*, is confirmed to be a black hole with the first direct image.

NBC News reports an international astronomer team called the Event Horizon Telescope conducted the research. It includes over 300 scientists from 80 different global institutions.

Scientists said the black hole exists about 27,000 light years away. It is 4 million times larger than the sun the Earth orbits.

Feryal Ozel, a University of Arizona professor of astronomy and astrophysics, is a member of the research team. She said observations from the image demonstrate the ways in which black holes "eat" by swallowing nearby gas and bending light with their intense gravity.

The black hole findings were published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.