Scientists win $3mn ‘Oscar of Science’ award for breakthrough black hole image

Few months ago, scientists made an astronomical breakthrough when they released the first-ever real image of a black hole that made headlines. Now, their work has been awarded with a Breakthrough Prize known as ‘Oscars of Science’.

Back in April, a team of 347 scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration showed the first direct image of a supermassive black hole. On Thursday, the team received a $3 million 2020 Breakthrough Prize, which is called as the Oscars of Science.

The prize will be split equally between all the 347 scientists who were on the team. The image was a fruit of data captured from eight radio telescopes from various locations to observe the galaxy Messier 87 and the black hole located at its center, reported CNET.

Astronomical breakthrough: People go gaga over first ever real picture of black hole

The captured image shows the black hole located in a galaxy that is about 54 million light-years away from Earth. The black hole is believed to have a mass equals to 6.5 billion suns.

The Breakthrough Prize recognizes and awards the world’s top scientists in the field of fundamental physicals, mathematics, and life sciences, as per Daily Mail. Winners from the other categories were also awarded $3 million, and will be recognized in a ceremony to be held on November 3 this year.

Moreover, the team has already started planning a sequel for the image, which will be a movie showing how massive clouds of gas are forever sucked into the void, as per AFP. For this, they have already recorded the necessary observations too, and are likely to produce the first video in 2020.