Peering into a Black Hole

What’s the biggest thing in the news this week? The biggest story is clearly Brexit; but the biggest thing is the black hole whose image we saw for the first time on Wednesday. Brexit may feel endless, but the black hole measures 40 billion kilometres across, is three million times the size of the Earth and is situated in a galaxy three hundred million, trillion miles away from us. 

The image shows a black space surrounded by rings of yellow, white and red light which, we are told, is created by superheated gas. People have compared the image to a donut or a bagel. But this cosmic abyss where light and matter can enter but not escape reminds me most of the burning eye of Sauron the Dark Lord in The Lord of the Rings, endlessly sucking everything into its power.

If we leave aside metaphors and ‘Brexit’s-like-this’ jokes, what remains is an insight into the vast and mysterious cosmos we inhabit. All those billions and trillions, and mind-boggling accounts of a zone where space and time cease to operate tell us, simply, that, by comparison, we are small, our lives are short and our understanding is limited. 

Indian cosmology has always envisaged an endless and incredibly ancient universe, but for Buddhists this doesn’t make our lives meaningless. Whether we observe the stars, or see the world in a grain of sand, as William Blake suggested, the cosmic perspective shows the insignificance of the concerns that usually crowd our attention. It challenges us to see past our preoccupations.

What do we then see? Whether we feel elated or overwhelmed depends, I think, on our capacity for imagination. The key is relinquishing a narrow idea of who we are that’s based on our immediate needs. Then a boundless sense that we’re part of an interconnected world opens up.

It’s inspiring to glimpse the vastness of the cosmos. The black hole may be an abyss, but I’m strangely moved by the fathomless dark mystery at the centre of the image, and the surrounding rings of fiery radiance.