New Scientist - 14.09.2019

10 | New Scientist | 14 September 2019

AFTER decades of dodgy special

effects and artist’s impressions,

the world got its first look at a real

black hole in April. The image

(right) quickly spread around the

globe, hitting the front pages of

many newspapers. It shows an

ethereal ring of orange light

around the supermassive black

hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy,

55 million light years from Earth.

It was taken using the combined

power of eight radio observatories

around the world by the Event

Horizon Telescope (EHT) team.

The international group of

387 scientists who took the image

has now been awarded the

$3 million Special Breakthrough

Prize in Fundamental Physics

in recognition of its work. New

Scientist spoke with the leader of

the collaboration, Shep Doeleman

at Harvard University.

First things first: how does the

EHT work?

It basically turns Earth into a

telescope. We do that by using

radio dishes across the globe that

all look at the same black hole at

the same time. Then, we take the

hard drives from those telescopes

and fly them to one place and use

a supercomputer to line up all the

data. When you do that, it’s like

having a telescope as big as Earth.

How did it feel to see that image

of a black hole for the first time?

It was jaw-dropping. It came in

waves for us. We first started

looking at the data that we had

gathered in 2017, and we just saw

the raw data in graphs. But even

there, we could see signs of what

might have been a silhouette of a

black hole. We split up into four

different groups and each

analysed the data separately.

When we came together and saw

that all four teams had seen this

ring, that’s when we began to

exhale. We knew that we had it.

What do you think is the importance

of the image?

It is destined to be iconic,

I think, just because it was the

first time that we’ve seen a black

hole, and seeing is believing.

We were focused on the science,

but it was the resonance of the

image across the globe with a

curious public that rocked us

a little bit on our heels.

Scientifically, the first thing that

we have done with it is to confirm

that Einstein’s theory of gravity

holds, to the precision of our

measurements, right up to the

very edge of a supermassive black

hole. We have also started to

understand black hole accretion.

Do black holes eat voraciously, do

they eat timidly, how do they send

out their jets? We’ve started to

understand these things.

What’s next for the EHT?

Scientists are never satisfied and

the EHT is no exception. What

we’re focusing on now is building

out the telescope array so we can

try to make videos that show us

dynamically how matter orbits

the black hole. We think that

understanding how these black

holes eat, live, exist over time is

crucial to understanding these

monsters and how galaxies

interact with them.

So we are focusing on building

new dishes and maybe even

launching telescopes into space.

In 20 years, I think that we will

have space-based platforms, so

that the EHT will not be limited

by the size of Earth, which will

sharpen our images. I think

we’re entering an era of precision

imaging of black holes.

Why is that so important?

There are no deeper questions in

the universe than how black holes

work. That is because we know

that, at their heart, they contain

a mystery – of how gravity and

quantum mechanics work

together. This is the deepest

question there is right now.

How do you feel about the prize?

I know the whole team feels this

sense of accomplishment. To have

our peers recognise our work, to

have a prize like the Breakthrough

Prize recognise it, means that it’s

not just that we think we did

something important – the whole

world feels it. I couldn’t be more

proud of the team. I just couldn’t

be more proud. ❚

Supermassive honour

Interview Shep Doeleman

News

The astronomers who took the first ever photo of a black hole have won

a $3 million Breakthrough Prize. Leah Crane spoke to the team’s leader

Researchers from around the

world have been awarded a total

of more than $20 million in this

year’s Breakthrough Prizes. The

physics winner was the team

behind the Event Horizon

Telescope (see main interview).

There were four winners in

the life sciences, each picking

up $3 million. They include

Jeffrey Friedman at Rockefeller

University in New York, who

discovered how we regulate body

fat genetically and hormonally in

1994. This has led to a greater
      understanding of obesity.

Also rewarded was David Julius

at the University of California, San

Francisco, who found mechanisms

through which we experience

pain, and Virginia Man-Yee Lee at

the University of Pennsylvania, for

identifying important proteins in

dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The Breakthrough Prize in

Mathematics went to Alex Eskin

at the University of Chicago. He

worked with the late Maryam

Mirzakhani on the dynamics

and geometry of a complicated

mathematical construct called

moduli space.

And the other winners are...

Shep

Doeleman,

head of

the Event

Horizon

Te le s co p e

STEPHANIE MITCHELL/HARVARD

EHT COLLABORATION