The
European Southern Observatory has just revealed there will be a huge
announcement next week. Yes, we
know how that sounds - but as far as we can tell, it appears the world
is about to finally see the first ever photo of a black hole's event horizon.
Of
course, we won't know for sure until the press event itself, which we will
cover live on our site. But here's a massive clue: according to the
advance statement, the researchers will be discussing the "first
result from the Event Horizon Telescope."
For
years, the Event Horizon Telescope has been staring into the heart of the Milky
Way, trying to obtain a photo of the location of Sagittarius A*, our galaxy's
central supermassive black hole. It's no mean feat: black holes themselves are, literally, invisible -
they absorb all electromagnetic radiation, which means none of our telescopes -
radio, X-ray, optical, gamma-ray - can detect them.
That's
why we've never
actually seen one. But seeing the event horizon - the point outside a black
hole at which light can no longer achieve escape velocity - is theoretically
possible, although not easy. Spacetime around a black hole is weird; in
addition, Sgr A* is shrouded in a thick cloud of dust and gas. Don't let that
stop dedicated scientists, though. Telescopes around the world turned their
combined might to the task, generating so much data that the only way to
transport it all was on hard
disks sent on planes. And then researchers had to sort through and analyse
those data.
Now
something is finally ready. On 10 April 2019, at 15:00 CEST (13:00 UTC, 9:00
EST) the European Commission, European Research Council, and the Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) project will present results they are describing as
"groundbreaking".
As
they note, "due to the importance of this result, we encourage satellite
events in the different ESO Member States and beyond."
AAAAAH.
WE CAN HARDLY WAIT.
The
event is going to be streamed on YouTube, and there's a link here.
Pop it in your bookmarks. We're also going to be live-blogging, so tune in on
the day if you want to share our excitement.
This
is going to be historical.
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