UW professor involved in groundbreaking black hole image

By CityNews Kitchener Staff

Earlier this week, the world caught a glimpse of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*.

This is only the second image of a black hole ever taken, and the first in our galaxy. 

It came from the international consortium behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a collection of eight synchronized radio telescopes around the world. The image provided is an average of the different images taken by each telescope.

Among the group of international astronomers involved, was Professor Avery Broderick from the University of Waterloo. 

Broderick helped found the EHT, and has built theoretical models for their “most promising targets and demonstrated the capacity of the EHT to transform black hole science.”

His research group developed powerful new tools that analyzed and interpreted the data generated by the radio telescopes, revealing in greater detail than ever before the astrophysical dramas that play out in the vicinity of a black hole’s event horizon.

“We are witnessing an evolution of radio imaging,” Broderick said. “Sgr A* has forced us to contend with image variability, unlocking a new era in radio astronomy in which image dynamics is no longer an obstacle but a new way to learn about the physics of the source.”

You can learn more about Broderick's involvement here

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