Reacción a "Reactions to the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy"

This is a black hole whose existence was conjectured fifty years ago as an almost fanciful idea. Over time, the evidence in favor of this hypothesis has grown to become almost a certainty. The 2020 Nobel Prize (to Genzel and Ghez) was awarded for the discovery and observation of stars orbiting around an enormously massive and compact, but dark center. With the Event Horizon Telescope the observation of this object has been made in the most direct way possible: by its 'shadow' on the luminous matter surrounding it. The image is very similar to the previous one in 2019 of the black hole M87*.

To most these images may seem unimpressive: they are blurry and bear little resemblance to the pretty illustrations of black holes we see in popular magazines or movies. But, on reflection, it is impressive that this has been achieved - we can see black holes! The impressive technical and scientific development required, and the ability to collaborate internationally in a coordinated way to achieve this, are among the best reasons we have to be proud of humanity, even though in so many other ways we are so disappointing.

The images we have now have too little detail to reveal specific properties of these black holes, nor to accurately test Einstein's theory. But these images should be understood as a beginning: in the future, the images will become more concrete (and also more beautiful). The task has only begun.

For the moment, we can say that the similarity between the 2019 image of M87* and the current image of SgrA*, despite the huge differences between their sizes (the latter is 1000 times smaller than the former), indicates that the closest environment to the black hole is very similar regardless of the size of the black hole. Later observations will tell us much more about the properties of the matter around the black hole, and we will be able to tell whether this object is really what Einstein's theory predicts, or a more exotic 'impostor' or 'imitator'. Because, today, black holes have become the simplest and most conventional explanation for the historic discoveries of recent years. Black holes have definitely left the realm of the craziest science fiction to become the next-door neighbors we see and greet almost every day. Today's image shows us, in fact, our closest neighbor among the largest of these objects.

You've been a long time coming, but we can finally say, nice to meet you in person, SgrA*!