The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration is a global effort to image, measure, and understand astrophysical black holes, by combining radio telescopes all around the world. So far, the collaboration has succeeded in zooming into the closest neighborhood of supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies: M87 and our own Milky Way.
Event Horizon Telescope
A virtual telescope the size of the Earth
- Duration
- 2000
- Project type
- Research
In 2000, Radboud University professor Heino Falcke proposed to combine telescopes around the world to form a virtual telescope: the Event Horizon Telescope the size of the Earth using the imaging technique Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). This technique links millimetre telescopes all around the globe to act as an interferometer: a virtual mm-telescope.
The EHT Consortium is formed by world leading institutions, including:
- our Radboud University
- the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- the University of Arizona
- the University of Chicago
- the East Asian Observatory
- Goethe University Frankfurt
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (part of the Center for Astrophysics)
- Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique (IRAM, itself a collaboration between the French CNRS, the German Max Planck Society, and the Spanish Instituto Geográfico Nacional),
- Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
- MITHaystack Observatory
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
The European part of the EHT is formed by the BlackholeCam project.
Results
2019: Astronomers capture first image of a black hole
For the first time, astronomers have managed to take a photo of a supermassive black hole and its shadow. They used the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a worldwide network of eight radio telescopes, that together form a virtual telescope the size of the earth. The news was presented in six press conferences around the world simultaneously. Read the press release about this breakthrough.
2021: Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87's black hole
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has revealed today a new view of the massive object at the centre of the M87 galaxy: how it looks in polarised light. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarisation, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core. Read the press release.
2022: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies. Read the press release.
2022: Astronomers receive ERC Synergy Grant to make colour movies of black holes and build new telescope in Africa
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Synergy Grant, named “BlackHolistic”, of 14 million Euro to a team of Dutch, British, Finnish, and Namibian astronomers to make colour movies of black holes. They will build the first ever African millimetre-wave radio telescope in Namibia to achieve their goal. The telescope will take part in the global Event Horizon Telescope network that became famous for making the first image of a black hole. The new grant will help to transform this network from making still images towards making movies and to understand black holes across the entire Universe. Read the press release.
Contact information
More information? Please contact our press officers at 024 361 6000, media@ru.nl or the project members.
