Photographing a Black Hole

On April 10, 2019, the world saw what many thought was unseeable. An international group of astronomers and scientists — called The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration — photographed a Black Hole. But while this first-ever image of a glowing orange ring was splashed across the front pages, buried in the back was the amazing story of how the team actually did it. A story of the herculean scientific work and dicey political maneuvering required from the researchers and scientists that spanned countries, continents, and institutions. In the second episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite uncovers the story of a team separated by time zones but united by the collective quest for the greatest cosmic discovery of our times. Shep Doeleman, co-founder of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, tells the tale along with insights from team member and professor of theoretical astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam Sera Markoff. We also hear from Avery Broderick, a black hole astrophysicist at the University of Waterloo, Paul Ho, Director of the East Asia Observatory in Taiwan, and Emily Conover, Physics Writer with Science News. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.