A first look at a super massive black hole

On April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a very long baseline interferometry experiment, released the first image of a black hole resolved to event horizon scales. I will discuss the image of M87 and aim to convince the audience that a flux depression in the image is necessary to fit the data. I will also discuss the parameters we derived based on the image and model fitting results. I will specifically highlight how EHT observations provide unique tests of the Kerr nature of black holes. Finally I will highlight some of my own contributions to this project and discuss how we plan to image the black hole in our own galaxy, Sagittarius A*.

Speaker: Lia Medeiros (Institute for Advanced Study)