Earth-Size Telescope Will Make Black Holes Say "Cheese!"

Nobel laureate Robert Wilson discusses how a network of telescopes might illumine a black hole, after the 92nd Street Y’s Bang! Bang! event.

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What does a black hole really look like?

Robert Wilson: The pictures they've probably seen are simulations of what we ought to see.

Nobel Laureate Robert Wilson explains how scientists are seeking ways to reveal a black hole's true form.


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Wilson: There are something like seven different telescopes in different parts of the world. In Hawaii, Arizona, Chile, Mexico, South Pole, Spain...And they can all sort of work together to make a sort of Earth-sized telescope. And we hope that in the end, when we get all this working correctly, that we'll be able to see transient events. And really get a picture of what a black hole looks like and its surroundings.

CREDITS

Executive Producer
Eliene Augenbraun

Producer
Lydia Chain

Videography
Eliene Augenbraun

Black Hole Images
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/
CI Lab
NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, 
Sonoma State Univ.
NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, 
and R. van der Marel (STScI)

Special Thanks
Robert Wilson
92nd Street Y
Claudia Dreifus
Andrew Krucoff
 

Lydia Chain is a freelance science journalist, podcaster, and videographer. She hosts Undark's podcast, and also writes about nature, the environment, and evolution, especially when it involves the intersection of humans and wild spaces or animals behaving strangely.

More by Lydia Chain

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