Humanity got its first look at a real black hole this week when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration revealed its image of the black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy.

“We have gone right to the edge of the event horizon, and seen the point of no return,” said EHT researcher Avery Broderick, who holds the Delaney Family John Archibald Wheeler Chair at Perimeter Institute. “This is an extraordinary moment in science.”

Broderick was among four scientists from the globe-spanning collaboration to unveil the historic image at a press conference April 10 in Washington, D.C.

The EHT — an interconnected network of eight telescopes around the world — is the highest-resolution instrument in the history of astronomy, which was needed to capture the image of the black hole 55 million light years away.

Humanity got its first look at a real black hole this week when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration revealed its image of the black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy. Commemorate this scientific landmark by downloading two new posters — one showcasing the historic image of the M87 black hole, and the other celebrating the global research project that made the image possible.