The first black hole ever photographed, M87, continues to amaze scientists with new revelations. This supermassive black hole, which is located at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy Virgo A, was likely born from the merger of multiple black holes, and has been the subject of recent studies published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Analysis of data collected in 2017 and 2018 by the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project - involving more than 400 scientists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America - revealed that the black hole's rotation points away from Earth, while the surrounding gas corona rotates in the opposite direction. This retrograde motion generates a particularly turbulent environment, justifying the wide variations in light observed over the years. These include a shift of about 30 degrees in the brightest region of the ring compared to 2017. Italy is participating in the project through the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), contributing significantly to these findings. “Retrograde motion promotes marked luminous fluctuations in the ring emission,” points out Mariafelicia De Laurentis, physicist at the University of Naples Federico II and INFN. With a new library of 120,000 images collected in 2021 and 2022 - three times larger than previous data - researchers will continue to test the limits of Einstein's theory of relativity under conditions of extreme gravity, advancing the exploration of one of the most enigmatic objects in the universe.