![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2019\/04\/big-m87-black-hole-compared-the-earth-300x158.png\")
<\/div>Pale Black Dot<\/h2>
On Wednesday, a team of scientists from around the world released the first ever directly-observed image of the event horizon of a black hole<\/a>.<\/p> The black hole, M87*, is found within the constellation Virgo — and as the webcomic XKCD<\/em><\/a> illustrated, it’s as big as our entire solar system.<\/p> The gigantic black hole, not counting the giant rings of trapped light<\/a> orbiting it, is about 23.6 billion miles (38 billion kilometers) across, according to Science News<\/em><\/a>.<\/p> Meanwhile, the Earth is just 7,917 miles in diameter — meaning our planet wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket of the giant, black void. Based Futurism’s calculations, it would take just over 2.98 million Earths lined up in a row to span the length of M87*. For a sense of scale, that’s about how many adult giraffes<\/a> it would take to span the diameter of Earth.<\/p> Our entire solar system is just about 2.27 billion miles wide, meaning we could just barely fit the whole thing into the newly-imaged black hole’s event horizon.<\/p> Thankfully, M87* is about 55 million light years away — so while we could readily fit inside its gaping maw, we’re way too far to get sucked in.<\/p> READ MORE:<\/strong> Revealed: a black hole the size of the solar system<\/a> [Cosmos<\/em>]<\/p> More on M87*:<\/strong> Scientists: Next Black Whole Image Will Be Way Clearer<\/a><\/em><\/p> The post Here’s How Big the M87 Black Hole Is Compared to the Earth<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> Read the rest here: Pale Black Dot On Wednesday, a team of scientists from around the world released the first ever directly-observed image of the event horizon of a black hole . The black hole, M87*, is found within the constellation\u00a0Virgo \u2014 and as the webcomic XKCD illustrated, it\u2019s as big as our entire solar system. Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2019\/04\/m87_black_hole_size_comparison.png\")
<\/p>Stellar Giant<\/h2>
Paging Pluto<\/h2>
Here’s How Big the M87 Black Hole Is Compared to the Earth<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"