Space enthusiasts, curious minds and virtually every other person inhabiting the planet got a real treat on Wednesday as the first-ever image of a black hole was released to the public. For the first time, we now have “direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow,” according to a press release by the National Science Foundation.
This astrophysics breakthrough was achieved by an international team of scientists using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of eight ground-based radio telescopes. The research team consisted of more than 200 scientists, with contributions coming from the Chinese science community, according to Xinhua.
The black hole, located at the center of a massive galaxy called Messier 87, is 55 million light-years away from Earth, with a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.
Chinese social media marveled over the groundbreaking image and took the opportunity to get creative in some of the least scientific ways possible. On Weibo, users flooded the digital platform with memes and a trending topic throughout today has been #blackholePScompetition (#黑洞PS大赛).
Below are a few we certainly got a kick out of...
Image via @柯剑同学/Weibo
Image via @电竞GO/Weibo
Image via @半岛都市报/Weibo
Image via @V9特权俱乐部血魔/Weibo
Image via @四轮玩具/Weibo
Image via @沈easy白羊/Weibo
Image via @牙齿矫正小周医生/Weibo
Image via @时间新闻/Weibo
Image via @还有醒着的么/Weibo
Image via @随州网警巡查执法/Weibo
Image via @Hnhrlentians/Weibo
Image via @i_have_a_meme_4_u_that/Instagram
Image via @成都地铁/Weibo
Image via @PANDAPIA/Weibo
Image via @senior_asparagus/Instagram
Image via @新浪收藏/Weibo
READ MORE: This Day in History: China's First Man In Space
[Cover image via @电竞GO/Weibo]
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