What Does a Black Hole Look Like: How We Got our First Picture

Black holes are one of the most remarkable predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity: so much material is compressed into such a small volume that nothing, not even light, can escape. Black holes have also captured the public imagination, and are commonly featured in popular culture, from Star Trek to Hollywood movies. In Spring 2019, the world-wide Event Horizon Telescope released the first real (non-Hollywood!) picture of gas around a black hole and the “shadow” it makes as the gas swirls into the black hole. Dr. Quataert will describe how these observations were made and what they have taught us about black holes.

Speaker: Dr. Eliot Quataert, UC Berkeley