Opinion: The black hole photo was no big surprise to scientists. Here’s why it’s still a big deal.
The first-ever image of a black hole, taken using a global network of telescopes, conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope project. /National Science Foundation/Handout via Reuters) By Jenny Greene April 12 at 4:32 PM Jenny Greene is a professor of astrophysics at Princeton University.
I am a black-hole hunter. But, until now, much of the evidence has been circumstantial. We see mass concentrations in the centers of galaxies, but in most cases we cannot prove that the densities are those of a black hole. Even so, these supermassive black holes capture our imagination. My husband always asks me, what happens inside a black hole.
However, what has really stuck with me is a comment from Avery Broderick, a theorist in astrophysics who makes the model predictions of what light rays should do right at the edge of the event horizon. The models were exactly right — a triumph for the theory of general relativity that Albert Einstein formulated more than a century ago.
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