CULTURE

Check out the World’s First Image of a Black Hole

Instagram

A black hole and its shadow were captured for the first time by a network of eight radio telescopes around the world, all thanks to the help of Katie Bouman.  Science continues to change history as technology advances every day by a different person. Recently, researcher Katie Bouman and her constituents settled into a small room at Harvard University where they joined forces to find the world’s first image of a black hole. By NASA reportings, a black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. For years, NASA has tried to find images of black holes by tracing stars and gas that are affected by an unusual pull of gravity. So how did Bouman help?

According to TIME, she helped create the Event Horizon Telescope. The Computer Engineer who knew little about black holes joined the Event Horizon Telescope team six years ago when she was pursuing her Ph.D. in computer vision. Bouman wanted to see or measure invisible objects, so she went on to lead a series of a test aimed at ensuring the telescope image. What the team found was when combining multiple telescopes, it can create a telescope the size of Earth. Thus resulting in the picture of a black hole lying at the center of Messier 87 (M87) galaxy. Bouman contributions to the image marked her place as a role model for younger girls and a leader in science.


You can follow Bouman via Instagram.