In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope captured the first image of a black hole’s silhouette in galaxy M87. The image revealed the shadow of the event horizon surrounded by glowing accretion material.
It matters because it provided direct visual evidence of black holes’ existence.
It also confirmed general relativity predictions in extreme gravity.
The first-ever image of a black hole revealed its glowing shadow.
[Event Horizon Telescope, eventhorizontelescope.org]