We did it

We photographed a black hole.

Now, by definition, you can't see a black hole. As no light can escape the singularity, it would just appear to be dark against the dark background of space.

However, you can locate black holes by various means.

If they pass through a cloud, you can see where they have pulled matter into itself. If one goes too close to a star. This is detected by X-rays.

Which means that what we have actually photographed is matter orbiting the black hole.

It looks like this:

Note that this is a false color image - the actual light being emitted is wavelengths our eyes can't see.

You can see the black hole as an absence within its "halo."

The researchers chose a large target. This is the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a large galaxy. Black holes in the center of galaxies act as kind of gravitic anchors, holding them together. This includes our own galaxy.

It's kind of pretty.

It's also kind of scary...