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Breakthrough discovery in astronomy: first ever image of a black hole
On 10 April 2019 at 15:00 CEST (Brussels time) the European Commission presented a ground-breaking discovery by Event Horizon Telescope – an international scientific collaboration aiming to capture the first image of a black hole by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. EU-funded researchers play a key role in the project.
Black holes are extremely compressed cosmic objects, containing incredible amounts of mass within a tiny region. Their presence affects their surroundings in extreme ways, by warping spacetime and super-heating any material falling into it. The captured image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. This black hole is located 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5-billion times larger than our sun.
Six press conferences around the world took place simultaneously. In Europe, Commissioner Moedas and lead scientists funded by the European Research Council held a press conference in Brussels to unveil the discovery.
Panelists:
– Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation
– Prof. Anton Zensus, Director at Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany (Chair of the EHT Collaboration Board)
– Prof. Heino Falcke, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (Chair of the EHT Science Council)
– Dr Monika Mościbrodzka, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (EHT Working Group Coordinator)
– Prof. Luciano Rezzolla, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany (EHT Board Member)
– Prof. Eduardo Ros, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany, (EHT Board Secretary)
EC press release:
Scientific press release by EHT:
More insights by Jonathan O’Callaghan’s article:
Behind the scene with the black hole scientists:
#EHTBlackHole #BlackHoleDay #RealBlackHole #BlackHoles
