In 2017, scientists set out on a mission to take the very first picture of a black hole’s event horizon. Over 10 days, the team observed Sagittarius A*—the black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way. They linked up telescopes around the globe virtually and by doing so created one huge, Earth-sized telescope.
Over the observation period, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team collected a petabyte of data. This was then distributed to two research institutions—MIT Haystack Observatory in the U.S. and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany. The data were then processed by supercomputers.
Now, the researchers are set “to present a groundbreaking result from the EHT,” a statement from the European Southern Observatory and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) said. The announcement will be made on April 10, and viewers can watch a live stream here.