<p>The observation did indeed confirm general relativity, see e.g. <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/event-horizon-telescope-black-hole-image-einstein-general-relativity" rel="noreferrer">Lisa Grossman wrote in October 2020 for ScienceNews: <em>The first black hole image helped test general relativity in a new way</em></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>That iconic image, of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 about 55 million light-years away, showed that the shadow closely matched general relativity’s predictions of its size. [...]</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Specifically, the researchers used the size of the black hole to perform what’s known as a “second-order” test of general relativity geared toward boosting confidence in the result. That “can’t really be done in the solar system” because the gravitational field is too weak, says EHT team member Lia Medeiros of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-30T17:21:38.080Z
2020-12-30T17:21:38.080Z
B--rian
<p>Today, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope" rel="nofollow noreferrer">EHT</a> released (somewhat blurry as compared to simulations) <a href="https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/wobbling-shadow-m87-black-hole" rel="nofollow noreferrer">images of the M87 black hole</a>.
Did the image contain anything which might lead to a correction to General Relativity or were all the observations according to what had been predicted?</p>

<black-hole>
Is there any difference between M87's image and predictions?
Arhaan Ahmad
# Is there any difference between M87's image and predictions?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-10)

Today, the [EHT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope) released (somewhat blurry as compared to simulations) [images of the M87 black hole](https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/wobbling-shadow-m87-black-hole).
Did the image contain anything which might lead to a correction to General Relativity or were all the observations according to what had been predicted?

**Tags:** black-hole


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-12-30. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

The observation did indeed confirm general relativity, see e.g. [Lisa Grossman wrote in October 2020 for ScienceNews: *The first black hole image helped test general relativity in a new way*](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/event-horizon-telescope-black-hole-image-einstein-general-relativity)

> That iconic image, of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 about 55 million light-years away, showed that the shadow closely matched general relativity’s predictions of its size. [...]

> Specifically, the researchers used the size of the black hole to perform what’s known as a “second-order” test of general relativity geared toward boosting confidence in the result. That “can’t really be done in the solar system” because the gravitational field is too weak, says EHT team member Lia Medeiros of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.


---

