Nº 6 (2022)

Black holes were pretty exotic and hypothetical objects. A century ago there was no hope observing this type of objects due to their low luminosity and small angular sizes. Everything changed in 2019 when the humanity obtained the first image of a black hole shadow that proved the existence of supermassive black holes. An article will answer the questions: how radio astronomy achieved this breakthrough, and how to build a telescope with a size of Moon’s orbit.

Black holes are on the top of the list of the most popular space objects. Not only astrophysics are interested in their properties, but general public as well, including school students, amateur astronomers, and other people, curious for everything unexplored. Even though black holes are invisible in the common sense of the word, they manifest themselves by the influence upon their environment. Today scientists dispose of convincing, albeit indirect, evidences in favour of their existence. But in 2019 something really new happened in that field of study — the public was presented with an image of a supermassive black hole. Such image is called a black hole’s shadow and is essentially a direct and the most forceful proof of the existence of that object. The shadow of a black hole is a key to the secret how one can see the invisible. Hereunder we give a notion of a shadow and explain, how and what kind of information about the black hole we can get from these observations.

7 сентября 2022 г. на 81-м году жизни скончался 66-й отечественный космонавт, 207-й космонавт мира, врач-космонавт-исследователь, инструктор-космонавт отряда космонавтов ИМБП РАН, доктор медицинских наук, профессор, Герой Советского Союза, Герой Российской Федерации, обладатель абсолютного мирового рекорда по длительности полета в космос (437 суток 18 часов) Валерий Владимирович Поляков.