Photo Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR: NASA/HST/STScI. Inset: Radio (EHT Collaboration)
At the centre of our own galaxy The Milky Way sits a huge black hole called Sagittarius A*, which is four million times the mass of our sun and sits 40 million miles (60 million kilometres) across. Its vast size is almost incomprehensible, a huge tear in the fabric of space-time, but it is actually quite a dormant and friendly black hole. Matter around it is spinning incredible fast, but it is actually barely sucking anything into itself so no need to panic just yet.
However, because a black hole... is well black, not even light can escape its grasp so it can be pretty difficult to take a photo of something that is technically sitting in the dark. It would be like holding up your camera at night, in a dark room and trying to take a photo of your cat. You're not going to see much. The same applies to Sagittarius A*, but luckily, spinning around black holes you can see a halo of super-heated matter that is slowly being sucked inside and in Sagittarius A*'s case, very slowly, just a small rice grain's worth every so often.
But until recently, we had no idea what it looked like or even if it really existed. So, over the last few years, astronomers have collaborated together to create a huge network of synchronized radio telescopes from around the world to try and capture this beast and confirm its existence sitting a mere 26,000 light-years away, aptly named the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and astronomers were delighted to finally offer us this amazing image, a single moment in time of our very own black hole, sitting silently at the centre of our own Milky Way.
In celebration of this incredible discovery I am delighted to share with you my Black Hole Granny Square design! A truly unique crochet design for any scientific fan in your life. I may design a few more space themed granny squares as well so if you are on
Instagram, come drop me a comment on my post with your space themed Granny Square suggestions! I would love to hear them.
You can find my Black Hole Granny Square pattern
here.