Groundbreaking Milky Way Results From the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Update: Stunning Reveal: First Image of the Black Hole at the Center of Our Milky Way Galaxy

Today (May 12, 2022) at 9:00 a.m. EDT (6:00 a.m. PDT, 15:00 CEST) The European Southern Observatory () and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project will hold a press conference to present new results from the EHT.

The ESO Director General will deliver the opening words. EHT Project Director Huib Jan van Langevelde and EHT Collaboration Board Founding Chair Anton Zensus will also deliver remarks. A panel of EHT researchers will explain the result and answer questions. This panel is composed of:

Thomas Krichbaum, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany
Sara Issaoun, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, US and Radboud University, the Netherlands
José L. Gómez, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Spain
Christian Fromm, Würzburg University, Germany
Mariafelicia de Laurentis, University of Naples “Federico II” and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy

You can watch it live in the YouTube live stream embedded below:

Update: Meet Sagittarius A* – Astronomers Reveal First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of the Milky Way

Following the press conference, ESO will host an online event for the public on its YouTube channel: a live question and answer session where members of the public will have the opportunity to query another panel of EHT experts. This panel will be composed of:

Sera Markoff, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Michael Janssen, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany
Rocco Lico, Astrophysics Institute of Andalucía, Spain and Istituto di Radioastronomia, Italy
Roman Gold, Southern Denmark University, Denmark
Violette Impellizzeri, Leiden University, Netherlands
Ziri Younsi, University College London, UK

This YouTube event will start at 10:30 a.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. PDT, 16:30 CEST) and last for approximately one hour.

Using the Event Horizon Telescope, scientists obtained an image of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon. Credits: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.

The announcement has been a closely guarded secret, although most speculation centers around an announcement related to imaging of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This is because the last major announcement from the Event Horizon Telescope project was three years ago when they released the first-ever image of a black hole and its shadow (see above image.)