So, how do scientists really study black holes?

The groundbreaking snapshot of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy about 55 million light years away from Earth, was a product of the Event Horizon Telescope, an international collaboration between more than 200 researchers. Using a technique called very long baseline interferometry, eight synchronised groundbased radio observatories around the world formed, in essence, one Earthsized radio telescope powerful enough to make high-resolution observations roughly 4 000 times those of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The team recently released additional images that reveal the pace at which

M87* gobbles up its surroundings and display the web-like structure of magnetic field lines, which swirl around the black hole and shape massive jets of energetic particles emanating from its centre.