Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2019

“Once we were sure we had imaged the shadow, we could compare our observations to extensive computer models that include the physics of warped space, superheated matter and strong magnetic fields. Many of the features of the observed image match our theoretical understand- ing surprisingly well,” remarks Paul T.P. Ho, EHT Board member and Di- rector of the East Asian Observatory. “This makes us confident about the interpretation of our observations, including our estimation of the black hole’s mass.” “The confrontation of theory with observations is always a dramatic moment for a theorist. It was a re- lief and a source of pride to realise that the observations matched our predictions so well,” elaborated EHT Board member Luciano Rezzolla of Goethe Universität, Germany. Creat- ing the EHT was a formidable chal- S imulated image of an accreting black hole. The event hori- zon is in the middle of the image, and the shadow can be seen with a rotating accretion disk surrounding it. [Bronzwaer/Davelaar/Moscibrodzka/ Falcke/Radboud University] T he first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the centre of Messier 87 and its shadow. This image is very similar to the simulated one. [EHT Collaboration]