Scientists to make major mystery announcement regarding Milky Way on Thursday; Watch event

Scientists who unveiled the first-ever Black Hole image to the world are set to make yet another groundbreaking announcement regarding our galaxy Milky Way this week involving the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. United States National Science Foundation (NSF), with the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, will hold a press conference on Thursday to announce the "groundbreaking results about the center of our galaxy,” read a statement. One of the most historic events with respect to space will also be streamed live online and on the Facebook handle of the National Science Foundation.

The conference will be held in collaboration with the USA National Science Foundation, the European Southern Observatory, the Joint ALMA Observatory, and other funding agencies and institutions.

NSF's Chief Operating Officer Karen Marrongelle will deliver opening remarks. A panel of Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT, researchers will present their findings and answer queries from the media at the event. The announcement is related to the discovery made by the Event Horizon Telescope, the statement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) read on May 10. It is, however, being speculated that the scientists will reveal the Event Horizon Telescope’s Image of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole. EHT is a network of radio telescopes installed around the world that observes and studies primarily the black holes.

South Pole Telescope is one of the facilities that came together around the world to create the virtual Event Horizon Telescope that targeted two black holes. Credit: Peter Rejcek/National Science Foundation

EHT revealed the first-ever image of a black hole

Earlier in April 2019, the international astronomical consortium EHT revealed the first-ever image of a black hole known as the Messier 87 that was observed in the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A. The image depicted the glowing disk surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the M87 galaxy. Launched in 2020, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in partnership with the National Society of Black Physicists, welcomed the Event Horizon Telescope or EHT’s observations. 

Credit: Facebook/National Science Foundation (NSF)

According to NSF, May is the 'Black Holes Week' and the scientific community discusses the black holes that have long inspired the imagination yet challenged discovery. However, from a combination of theory and observation, scientists now know much about these objects and how they form and can even see how they impact their surroundings. Since the groundbreaking ideas were proposed in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the first image of a black hole was revealed a century later by the global Event Horizon Telescope. 

On May 12, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and researchers from the EHT are expected to announce the results of their survey that examined the SMBH in our very own Milky Way galaxy. The press conference on Thursday, May 12th will commence at 03:00 pm CEST (08:00 EDT; 05:00 PDT) The event will take place at the ESO Headquarters in Munich, Germany, and live-streamed via an ESO webcast. The conference will also be streamed on the 

National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds the EHT, will hold a press conference which will include these participants:

• Katherine (Katie) L. Bouman, Assistant Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Electrical Engineering and Astronomy at Caltech 
• Vincent Fish, Research Scientist at MIT Haystack Observatory 
• Feryal Özel, Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Physics at University of Arizona
• Michael Johnson, Astrophysicist at Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian 
• The European Southern Observatory, which participates in the partnership, will hold a press conference including:
• Xavier Barcons, ESO Director General
• Huib Jan van Langevelde, EHT Project Director
• Anton Zensus, EHT Collaboration Board Founding Chair
• Thomas Krichbaum, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany
• Sara Issaoun, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (USA) and Radboud University, the Netherlands
• José Gómez, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Spain
• Christian Fromm, Würzburg University, Germany
• Mariafelicia de Laurentis, University of Naples "Federico II" and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy