Seeing the Unseeable – Avery Broderick
In this public lecture, Professor Avery Broderick told the incredible tale of how a global collaboration of astronomers, physicists and engineers literally travelled to the ends of the Earth to synthesize a telescope the size of the Earth, the only instrument capable of probing the staggeringly small scales presented by black holes.
He described how the Event Horizon Telescope generated an image of the black hole in April 2019, and what this image means for science.
His highly technical presentation held the audience captive for almost two hours. Professor Broderick delved into the science behind the telescope used to capture the image and why it is the most accurate picture to date. He also spoke about the importance of black holes, explaining that, they correspond to infinitely dense, compact regions in space and time, where gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light, can escape from within. The audience included academics from local universities and colleges as well as students with a passion for astronomy.
