# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DE5xeSmTa0C
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26016699-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/6482ab0aa5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-01-16T22:09:22.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.

Released in 2019, this is the first image of a black hole and its shadow, which represents a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). A black hole is an extremely dense object from which no light can escape. Anything that comes within a black hole’s “event horizon,” its point of no return, will be consumed, never to re-emerge, because of the black hole’s unimaginably strong gravity. Not unlike the Black Lodge.

In this image, you can see the shadow of the supermassive black hole in the center of Messier 87 (M87), an elliptical galaxy some 55 million light-years from Earth. This black hole is 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun. Catching its shadow involved eight ground-based radio telescopes around the globe, operating together as if they were one telescope the size of our entire planet.

In memory of David Lynch, we will continue to explore the otherworldly and the unknown. We will focus not on the loss, but on what we gained from the years we shared this planet with you. We will see you in our dreams.

Image description: Using the Event Horizon Telescope, scientists obtained this image of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon. The hot gas is shaped like a doughnut and is glowing a warm yellow color with reddish tint at its edges. The darkness of space is black in the background.

Credit: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.

#DavidLynch #TwinPeaks #Doughnut #BlackHole #Shadow #EventHorizon #SupermassiveBlackHole #NASA #Space #Donut

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 911,995
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 3,252

## Tags

shadow, nasa, doughnut, twinpeaks, eventhorizon, space, davidlynch, donut, blackhole, supermassiveblackhole

---
Copyright (c) Gondola