Event Horizon Telescope
Global radio telescope array / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, which form a combined array with an angular resolution sufficient to observe objects the size of a supermassive black hole's event horizon. The project's observational targets include the two black holes with the largest angular diameter as observed from Earth: the black hole at the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87*, pronounced "M87-Star"), and Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced "Sagittarius A-Star") at the center of the Milky Way.[1][2]
Alternative names | EHT |
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Established | 2009; 15 years ago (2009) |
Website | eventhorizontelescope |
Telescopes | |
Related media on Commons | |
The Event Horizon Telescope project is an international collaboration that was launched in 2009[1] after a long period of theoretical and technical developments. On the theory side, work on the photon orbit[3] and first simulations of what a black hole would look like[4] progressed to predictions of VLBI imaging for the Galactic Center black hole, Sgr A*.[5][6] Technical advances in radio observing moved from the first detection of Sgr A*,[7] through VLBI at progressively shorter wavelengths, ultimately leading to detection of horizon scale structure in both Sgr A* and M87.[8][9] The collaboration now comprises over 300[10] members, and 60 institutions, working in over 20 countries and regions.[11]
The first image of a black hole, at the center of galaxy Messier 87, was published by the EHT Collaboration on April 10, 2019, in a series of six scientific publications.[12] The array made this observation at a wavelength of 1.3 mm and with a theoretical diffraction-limited resolution of 25 microarcseconds. In March 2021, the Collaboration presented, for the first time, a polarized-based image of the black hole which may help better reveal the forces giving rise to quasars.[13] Future plans involve improving the array's resolution by adding new telescopes and by taking shorter-wavelength observations.[2][14] On 12 May 2022, astronomers unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.[15]