Most images of black holes are illustrations. Here’s what our telescopes actually capture || Vox

vox || Soon, we may get to see one up close for the first time.

… Even though black holes excite the imagination like few other concepts in science, the truth is that no astronomer has actually seen one. We’ve “heard” them, so to speak, as scientists have recorded the gravitational waves (literal ripples in spacetime) emanating from black holes that collided with one another billions of years ago.

But any photo you’ve seen of a dark mass warping spacetime … well, that’s just an illustration.

This soon may change. An audacious global project called the Event Horizon Telescope is currently working to piece together an image of a black hole for the first time. And if it does, it will be a remarkable accomplishment. Because as massive black holes are, they’re actually incredibly hard to see up close.