We have captured the first image of a Black Hole. Ask Us Anything!

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of a black hole. Today, in coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers have revealed that they have succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow.

The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun

• Press conference right now! eso.org/live.
• Details on the discovery can be read here: https://www.eso.org/eht
• Press Release: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1907/

We are a group of researchers who have been involved in this result. We will be available starting with 20:00 CEST (14:00 EDT, 18:00 UTC). Ask Us Anything!

Guests:

• Kazu Akiyama, Jansky (postdoc) fellow at National Radio Astronomy Observatory and MIT Haystack Observatory, USA

  • Role: Imaging coordinator

• Lindy Blackburn, Radio Astronomer, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, USA

  • Role: Leads data calibration and error analysis

• Christiaan Brinkerink, Instrumentation Systems Engineer at Radboud RadioLab, Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University, The Netherlands

  • Role: Observer in EHT from 2011-2015 at CARMA. High-resolution observations with the GMVA, at 86 GHz, on the supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center that are closely tied to EHT.

• Paco Colomer, Director of Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE)

  • Role: JIVE staff have participated in the development of one of the three software pipelines used to analyse the EHT data.

• Raquel Fraga Encinas, PhD candidate at Radboud University, The Netherlands

  • Role: Testing simulations developed by the EHT theory group. Making complementary multi-wavelength observations of Sagittarius A* with other arrays of radio telescopes to support EHT science. Investigating the properties of the plasma emission generated by black holes, in particular relativistic jets versus accretion disk models of emission. Outreach tasks.

• Joseph Farah, Smithsonian Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA

  • Role: Imaging, Modeling, Theory, Software

• Sara Issaoun, PhD student at Radboud University, the Netherlands

  • Role: Co-Coordinator of Paper II, data and imaging expert, major contributor of the data calibration process

• Michael Janssen, PhD student at Radboud University, The Netherlands

  • Role: data and imaging expert, data calibration, developer of simulated data pipeline

• Michael Johnson, Federal Astrophysicist, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, USA

  • Role: Coordinator of the Imaging Working Group

• Chunchong Ni (Rufus Ni), PhD student, University of Waterloo, Canada

  • Role: Model comparison and feature extraction and scattering working group member

• Dom Pesce, EHT Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, USA

  • Role: Developing and applying models and model-fitting techniques for quantifying measurements made from the data

• Aleks PopStefanija, Research Assistant, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

  • Role: Development and installation of the 1mm VLBI receiver at LMT

• Freek Roelofs, PhD student at Radboud University, the Netherlands

  • Role: simulations and imaging expert, developer of simulated data pipeline

• Paul Tiede, PhD student, Perimeter Institute / University of Waterloo, Canada

  • Role: Member of the modeling and feature extraction teamed, fitting/exploring GRMHD, semi-analytical and GRMHD models. Currently, interested in using flares around the black hole at the center of our Galaxy to learn about accretion and gravitational physics.

• Pablo Torne, IRAM astronomer, 30m telescope VLBI and pulsars, Spain

  • Role: Engineer and astronomer at IRAM, part of the team in charge of the technical setup and EHT observations from the IRAM 30-m Telescope on Sierra Nevada (Granada), in Spain. He helped with part of the calibration of those data and is now involved in efforts to try to find a pulsar orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sgr A*.