All language subtitles for Black.Hole.Hunters

Narrator: Black holes.

The most formidable
yet mysterious entities

In our universe.

For over two years,

Our cameras have followed a team
of international scientists

Trying to reveal
their ultimate secret.

Man: Attention, attention!

Call station 42.

Narrator: They are taking
the first-ever picture

Of a black hole.

Man: If you ask why
this hasn't been done before,

It's because
it's really, really hard.

Narrator: To pull off
this extraordinary feat,

They must travel to the most
hostile environments

In the world...

Man: It's pretty cold.

The windchill right now
is around minus 70.

Narrator: ...To build
a network of telescopes

The size of planet earth.

Their goal: To reveal
a picture of a black hole

That will challenge the theories
of albert einstein

And could pave the way
to a revolution in physics.

Man: It will be one of the most
thrilling discoveries

Of our age.

Narrator:
This is the inside story

Of the mission to capture
the first real image

Of a black hole.

♪

In the expanse of our universe,

There is one object
so mysterious

It puzzles
the greatest scientific minds.

The black hole.

Max tegmark:
Pretty much every crazy idea

That sounds like sci-fi

Has been put forward
in a serious physics journal

As something that can happen
inside of black holes.

It's really the frontier
of the wild west of physics.

Brian greene: A black hole
is a region of space

Where the pull of gravity
is so powerful

That nothing at all can escape
if it gets too close.

And by nothing,
I really mean nothing,

Including even light itself.

Janna levin:
What we really mean by that

Is this area
called the event horizon.

It's a specific limit

Around the black hole

That marks what's inside
and what's outside.

Scott hughes: Once anything
crosses that boundary,

Adios, it is out of contact
with the rest of the universe.

We don't know what
its ultimate fate is,

But probably it ain't very good.

Narrator: Most scientists today

Believe that black holes
really exist.

But nobody has ever
actually seen one.

Ramesh narayan: We have
identified lots of objects

That look like black holes,

But you can't prove
that they're black holes.

This is where
the problem comes, right?

Narrator: If nobody has ever
seen a black hole,

Can we be sure
that they really exist?

Could this fundamental notion
about our universe

And how it works

Be wrong?

Astronomer shep doeleman

From the smithsonian
astrophysical observatory

Is on a mission
to solve this mystery.

He's spearheading
an extraordinary experiment.

Shep wants to take
the first-ever photograph

Of a black hole.

Shep doeleman:
The goal of the entire project

Is to see what a black hole
really looks like,

Detect its shape

And see what's happening
immediately surrounding it,

Because that's where
the action is.

We are really in
uncharted territory.

So it's all a bit of a gamble.

It's what we call
high risk, high payoff.

Narrator: Here at
the haystack observatory

And across the world,

Shep has been
developing a technique

To try and see the unseen.

Shep is targeting
the very center of the galaxy,

Where astronomers have recorded
a cluster of stars

Orbiting something strange.

The stars are orbiting so fast,

Scientists have calculated

It must have the mass
of over 4 million suns.

The best explanation?

A black hole.

Shep wants to use
radio-telescopes

To try and see this black hole.

But there's a problem.

Although it's predicted to be
much larger than the sun,

From earth
it's 26,000 lightyears away.

This is such a small target,

There's no telescope
in existence

That has the power to see it.

Shep: The entire reason this
hasn't been done up till now

Is that black holes
are extremely small.

It would be the equivalent
of trying to see an orange

At the distance of the moon.

So we have to build a telescope.

We have to build
a fundamentally new instrument

That can see things
that are that small.

Narrator: To achieve
this unprecedented power,

For the last decade,

Shep has been working towards
a master-plan.

He wants to combine
eight separate telescopes--

In Spain,

Mexico,

Arizona,

Hawaii,

Chile,

And the south pole.

This earth-sized network

Is called
the event horizon telescope.

To capture the crucial image,

All eight dishes must point
towards the black hole

At exactly the same time.

Shep: We're linking telescopes
about 10,000 kilometers apart,

Even more than that.

By spanning the globe,

You create
a new kind of instrument

That can see a black hole.

That's the secret sauce,

That's the secret
of the event horizon telescope.

Narrator: It's a monumental
technological undertaking.

At each of the eight
observatories across the world,

Radio waves from around
the black hole

Must be recorded

And the data stored

Onto hundreds
of specialized hard drives.

These drives
must then be transported

To the max planck institute
in germany

And haystack observatory
in massachusetts,

Where the data will be combined
inside giant supercomputers

Called correlators.

Shep: This correlator is
the final piece of the puzzle.

The first part
is collecting data

At different spots
around the globe.

The second piece, though,
is combining that data.

And that's what
the correlator does.

Narrator: Only then will this
earth-sized telescope network

Have a chance to make an image
of a black hole.

Tegmark:
If the event horizon telescope

Manages to actually take
a high-quality photo

Of a black hole,

That's not an impressive feat;

It's a mind-blowing feat.

It's a technical tour de force
like we've never seen before.

Narrator: But what does
shep's team hope to see

If a black hole allows nothing,
not even light, to escape?

A black hole itself
is invisible,

But matter falling into it

Should give it away.

Its intense gravity
attracts interstellar gas

And pulls it into
a faster and faster orbit.

This heats the gas
to billions of degrees

And emits a glow

That the telescopes
may be able to detect.

If our ideas
about black holes are true,

The team predicts they will see
a circular ring of light

And the shadow
of a black hole.

For physicists,
a lot is at stake.

A picture of a black hole

Will test one of the most
treasured theories in science,

Einstein's theory
of general relativity.

His theory says that mass curves
the fabric of space and time,

Creating an effect
that we call gravity.

Hughes: Einstein's theory
of relativistic gravity,

That is what
lays the foundations

That set all of
our understanding.

Step 1 is just,
did einstein get it right?

Is there some detail
that's been overlooked?

Narrator: For a hundred years,

Einstein's theory
has passed every test.

But nobody has ever seen
its most extreme prediction.

If enough mass was crushed
into a small enough space,

The gravity would be so strong,

It would form a black hole.

Greene:
How wonderful would it be

If the event horizon telescope
shows us that in extreme realms,

Einstein
is not completely right?

It will be one of the most
thrilling discoveries of our age

As we will then
leap-frog forward

In our grasp
of how the universe works.

Narrator: A challenge
to einstein's theory

And a new era of astronomy

Rests on the success

Of the event horizon
telescope team.

♪

There are now just three months

Until the team will attempt
to observe the black hole

Using a network
of eight telescopes.

But there's a lot to do.

Shep has come to one of
the telescopes in the network

To oversee a crucial test run.

Shep: What really gets us
out of bed,

What really gets us
motivated for this,

Is building
a new kind of instrument.

When you think
of building a telescope

As large as the earth,

That in and of itself
is such a crazy idea.

Narrator: None of the telescopes
were originally designed

To connect
in this giant network.

So the team must fit
each telescope

With special equipment

And customize them
to make it work.

Shep: We're operating
a little bit on faith--

Faith that we've checked
everything that we can

And that it's working properly.

Narrator: Shep and the team
are hoping that the test run

Goes according to plan.

Shep: We spend all of our time
being paranoid.

There's a saying,
only the paranoid survive.

Narrator: To connect
the telescopes together,

The team is using
a special technique

Called very-long-baseline
interferometry.

But there is a big challenge.

During the observations,

They won't see any results
in real time.

Shep: The very nature
of the technique we're using

Is that we're not gonna know
if these observations work

Until we get all the data back

To a central
processing facility.

So we're here to do
what's called a dry run,

To make sure that everything
runs like clockwork.

Man: Scan 2.

Somebody wrote .78.
It's .078.

Who wrote that?

Narrator: During the critical
observation run,

There's a lot that can go wrong.

The radio signal
from the black hole

Must be recorded
at each telescope

And the data stored
onto specialized hard drives.

But clouds
can obscure the signal

And equipment could fail,

Knocking one or more

Of the telescopes

Out of the network.

So the team needs clear weather

And perfectly working telescopes

At every location
across the globe,

Simultaneously.

If just one telescope fails,

They might not get an image.

After the data
have been recorded,

The filled hard drives
will be shipped

To massachusetts
and germany,

Where the data must be combined,

And they will know if their
ambitious plan has worked.

Man: Everything's all set?

Man: Yeah, I hope so.

Narrator: In mexico,

Astronomer gopal narayanan
is in charge.

Gopal narayanan:
The whole purpose

Of the test observations
we're doing

Is to bring in a couple

Of new facilities.

We're going to bring in apex,
which is in chile,

Pico veleta in europe,

And the south pole telescope.

Narrator: Out of all of
the telescopes in the network,

The south pole is critical to
make an image of a black hole.

From mexico, the south pole
is nearly 8,000 miles away.

The huge distance
between these telescopes

Will help the team get an image
with much greater resolution.

Physicist dan marrone
and his team

Have traveled here
to the ends of the earth

To get the telescope ready.

Dan marrone: By including
the south pole telescope,

We really truly make a telescope
the size of the earth.

It more than doubles
the resolution of the array

And gives us that last bit
of detail that we need

To make a picture
of a black hole.

Narrator: It's January,

And the weather is a biting
33 degrees below zero.

Marrone: So it's pretty cold.

The windchill right now
is around minus 70.

Narrator: Despite the cold,

The team still needs to prepare
for the test observations.

They must install
this custom-built mirror

To the telescope

With submillimeter accuracy.

Marrone: Ok. I do believe
the tertiary is installed.

We have to have
this mirror positioned

So that the light from this
giant 10-meter telescope

Is focused precisely
on our receiver.

Uh, so that took
a little bit of doing,

But we think we have it right
about now.

Narrator: The mirror is in,

But until the observations
are complete,

They won't know if it's worked.

Back in mexico,

Gopal and the team get ready to
start the trial observation run

With the four telescopes.

They will record
the radio emission

From bright sources
called quasars

To test the network.

Data specialist lindy blackburn

Is in charge
of recording the data.

Man: One minute to go.

Gopal: One minute to go.
Is lindy happy with this?

[buzzing]

Gopal: Here we go. We're on.

Narrator: But as the test
observations begin...

Gopal: Ok, recording.

Narrator:
There's an unexpected problem.

Man: No lights.

Lindy: No lights?

Narrator: A bug in the code

Means the recording lights
are not coming on.

Lindy: It's trying to record.

Gopal:
It's trying to record? Ok.

Sending data to record--

Only the very last step
in this whole fine process,

Which is albeit
a very important step,

Which is to record the damn data

We've collected
all through the chain.

That is not happening right now.

Narrator: Without data,

The telescope is knocked out
of the network.

Gopal: Lindy is working
furiously to find the fixes.

And I think we're hopeful.

So the I.F. Levels look fine.

Lindy: Yeah.

Gopal: Tell me
it's working, lindy.

Man: No.

[bleep]

Lindy: Same problem.

I changed the order

That I thought was the initial
problem with the...

Gopal:
You're hoping that we'll get

This recording to start, lindy?

Lindy: I really don't know.

Woman: All ready?

Man: 10 seconds to go.

Man: Lights.

Gopal: Yay!

Good job, lindy!

Narrator: It's 2:46 a.M.

The team has recorded
the quasar data.

But they won't find out
if the test has worked

Until the data
have been analyzed.

Only then will the team know

If they stand a chance
on the real observation run

When they attempt to record
an image of a black hole.

An image of a black hole
will provide a new way

To test einstein's most extreme
theoretical predictions.

Greene:
Einstein's equations show us

That if you spend an hour or two
at the edge of a black hole

And then come back to earth,
for instance,

Earth might have aged
ten thousand

Or a million or a billion years.

So when we are observing

The event horizon
of a black hole,

We are observing what really
can be characterized

As a time machine.

Narrator: Yet despite
einstein's equations,

Even he didn't think
that black holes could exist.

He didn't believe there was
a way they could ever form.

Levin: That's a sensible
objection that einstein had.

I mean, after all, it would be
very, very, very hard to do,

To crush all the mass
of something to a point.

Einstein naturally
and reasonably assumed

That matter
just wouldn't allow itself

To be compacted that much.

Narrator: But evidence of
a mechanism has been growing.

Scientists now believe
a black hole

Is the corpse of a giant star

That's gone supernova.

[explosion]

Deep inside the debris,

The surviving core collapses
to an infinitely small point.

This is called the singularity.

Its intense gravity warps
space and time so severely

That nothing can escape,

Forming the black hole's
event horizon.

Greene:
It's possible that black holes

Are ultimately a figment of
the mathematical equations

That einstein gave us.

But how better to begin
to push this understanding

Than to look and see
what's actually out there?

And that's the promise
of the event horizon telescope.

Narrator: The team hopes
to test these theories

By taking a picture
of a black hole.

They have two targets

In the centers
of two different galaxies--

One called sagittarius a-star;

The other called m87.

Shep: There are only
a couple of targets

In the universe currently

Where the event horizon
telescope

Could hope to resolve
the silhouette of a black hole,

To see the edge
of the event horizon.

M87 is one of them.

Narrator: This image
showing emissions from m87

Is the closest astronomers have
come to seeing a black hole,

But it's not close enough.

Shep: If we want to image
the event horizon

We have to make an image

Of what's inside
this little box here,

At the very central core
of this galaxy.

That's what we've been directing
all of our efforts towards

For over a decade--

To find out what happens

In this place that has
been off limits to us

Since the beginning
of astronomy.

Narrator: If they succeed,

Computer simulations show
they should see this.

A ring of light circling
the edge of the black hole.

Shep: If we could see this ring,

It would be the best evidence
that we have

For the existence
of black holes.

♪

Narrator: It's been three months

Since the event horizon
telescope team ran a test

Using four out of eight
telescopes in their network.

Since the test run, they have
been processing the data.

And despite the recording
problems in mexico,

The results showed
that four telescopes

Combined successfully as one.

The full observation run
is now just one day away,

And shep is at
the black hole initiative

In cambridge, massachusetts.

This will be mission control.

The team needs to link
eight world-leading,

Multi-million-dollar
observatories simultaneously

To capture their image.

They have a 10-day window
at the telescopes.

But clouds
at any one of the locations

Will obscure the signal
from the black hole

And ruin the data.

So each day
shep needs to make a call--

If the night is go or no-go.

Shep: Whether or not
you energize

The event horizon telescope
on a given night,

That's the biggest decision
you can make.

If you make the right one,
then you've got great data.

If you make a wrong decision,

You've expended
huge amounts of resources.

Narrator:
Each night of observation

Will cost thousands of dollars

And eat up their limited
hard-drive space.

Shep needs five nights of data

To stand the best chance
of making an image.

Judging the weather conditions
across the world

Will be critical.

Man: Pico might go above
in the next couple of days.

Shep: The alma looks good.

If you make the wrong
go/no-go decision,

You may have jeopardized

Your ability to image
a black hole.

And that's what consumes us
when we're in that room.

Narrator: The communication
and weather reports are online.

Now shep needs to make sure
the telescopes are ready.

Shep: We want to make sure that
we understand where things stand

By the end of today, right?

Because if something
is not technically ready,

Then we really do
have a problem.

Narrator: High in the atacama
desert of chile...

Astronomer alan roy
is at the apex telescope

To make final preparations.

[speaking spanish]

Alan is responsible for the most
critical part of the project--

The timing.

Alan roy: Timing is absolutely
important to this project,

Absolutely central.

It's the heart piece
of the whole experiment.

You're putting in
a lot of effort,

A lot of money, a lot of time,

And it's all hinging
on getting that timing right.

Narrator: The event horizon
telescope network is so large,

The signal from the black hole

Will arrive at each telescope

At a different point in time.

What's more, the earth rotates.

As it spins, the position
of the telescopes in space

Constantly changes.

If the team can't record
the time the signals arrive

To within a millionth
of a millionth of a second,

The telescopes will fail
to combine as one.

To sync the telescopes together,

The team has spent $2 million

On some of the most
accurate atomic clocks

In the world,

Called hydrogen masers.

Alan: This is
the hydrogen maser.

This clock keeps time to about
a second in 10 million years.

Of course we don't wait
10 million years to measure it.

Narrator: Alan must keep this
clock at a stable temperature

So it runs precisely.

But there's a problem.

The chamber used to cool it
is broken.

Alan: The bearings have seized,
and we've got no cooling.

So that means
the chamber overheats,

And the maser is then
not very happy.

Narrator: A faulty maser
could be catastrophic.

In the remote atacama desert,

It's too far to call
for an engineer.

But alan has
a resourceful solution.

Alan: The solution is to crack
open the door of the chamber

So that the excess heat
from the maser

Can come out through the door.

It makes me a little nervous,

But the clock
we have to take on faith, yes,

That it's running as it should.

Narrator: This piece of tape

Should keep the maser
running correctly,

If it doesn't, the whole
experiment could be at risk.

Greene:
My hat is off to the folks

That can actually undertake

These experiments
and observations

And make it work.

It's real, it's tangible,

And it's extreme and abstract
at the same time.

♪

Narrator: In hawaii,
on the volcano mauna kea,

Project manager remo tilanus
hears from mission control.

Remo tilanus:
So, just got the news.

It's a go.

So, ready to go
and start observing.

Narrator:
This is the crucial moment

That over 10 years of hard work
has been leading up to.

Remo: It's taken a long time
to get to this point

That we're going
to get a real shot

To get an image of a black hole.

And now finally the day is here.

Narrator: Remo must ascend
to over 13,000 feet,

To the top of the volcano.

Here two observatories,

The james clerk maxwell
telescope

And the submillimeter array,

Are part of the network.

And remo is up against the clock
to get them ready.

Remo: Right.

We have to start
tuning the receiver.

This mirror
directs the radiation

Into the receiver
that we're going to use.

It's like tuning a radio.

It's going.

Looking good.

Narrator:
At the submillimeter array,

Engineer jonathan weintroub
is checking the data recorders.

Jonathan weintroub:
We have 50 minutes now

To run the checks
before we start recording.

And high altitude doesn't help
your brain function.

You tend to make more mistakes
at altitude.

Narrator:
But across the mountain,

Remo hits a glitch.

Remo: Oh!

What the heck?

He fell out of lock.

Narrator: The receiver
won't lock on to the frequency.

Without a lock, the data from
the telescope will be ruined.

Remo:
Maybe our yig is unlocked.

Narrator: Remo has no option

But to manually adjust
the receiver settings.

Remo: Darn, I might now need
reading glasses.

I can't see
the stupid dials anymore!

[laughs]

Yeah, we stayed in lock.

Excellent.

Narrator: The team is ready
just in time.

Man: I think we're all set.

Remo: Good.

Great. It has a nice signal.

Attention, attention.

Doors and roof will be opening,
doors and roof will be opening.

Call station 42,
call station 42.

Oh, jct is open.

Narrator: Remo directs
the antenna onto the target...

And jonathan gets ready
to record the data.

Jonathan: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Are we going?

Remo: The event horizon
telescope is on the way.

Narrator: After years of work,

The teams at eight observatories
across the world

Are finally recording
the radio emissions

From around a black hole.

♪

Over the first two days
of the run,

They successfully record
two full nights of data.

But it's not easy.

Shep: We're tired.

You know, you wind up

Just being up
at all hours of the night.

Where is it? Where is...

Woman: Oh, so, it's in front.

Shep: We had a problem
at one of the telescopes,

One of the bits of electronics
that we rely on

Was giving us
some crazy results.

Gopal:
We're at the maser right now.

Shep: Look at channel number 17.

And ultimately we fixed it,

Because we were in the room,
we're working.

Narrator: So far,

The weather has been perfect
across the globe.

But on day three,

At the large millimeter
telescope in mexico,

The outlook
is beginning to change.

Shep: That's a scary,
scary webcam.

The lmt is just
completely chaotic right now.

I mean, you saw the webcam.

They're socked in by fog,
there's clouds rolling in.

It looks very, very dicey
up there.

Man: Yes, it's clearly
building up.

Narrator: A storm system looks
like it's moving towards mexico.

Shep: The telescope
in mexico, the lmt,

And the telescope in arizona
have dicey weather.

So we're just gonna wait.

Narrator: Shep delays
the go/no-go decision.

It's too close to call.

Shep: You guys have to explain
these lmt webcams to me.

From one direction, it just
looks like a vacation paradise.

And then from these other views,

It just looks like

You're heading into
a vortex maelstrom of hell.

And I don't understand
how three different views

Can be so different.

Narrator: Shep has to decide.

But now there's news from
the alma observatory in chile.

Shep: Hold on, hold on,

I want to make sure I understand
what you just said.

You think there's a chance
that the data from last night

From alma are corrupted?

Man: Um, there's a chance.

Narrator: Corrupt data

Could put the whole
$50 million experiment

In jeopardy.

At eight telescopes
across the world,

The team has been recording
the emission from a black hole.

Remo: Ok, recording.
Man: Recording.

Remo: Alright.
Man: Oh, yes, yes.

Narrator: They are three days

Into their 10-day
observation window,

But at the alma observatory
in chile,

The team thinks their
entire second night of data

Could be corrupt.

Shep: This is
a whole new wrinkle for us.

If you had extra time,
could you run this problem down?

Man: Running it down
is probably not likely.

Narrator: It's a massive blow.

The team might now only have
one night's worth of data

Out of five they need.

With the weather outlook
set to get worse,

Shep has to take a risk.

Shep: I think we should
make this a go

Because we're not gonna
tear the system apart,

So we have to assume
that alma's going to be fine.

So I'm gonna say
that we're gonna go.

♪

Narrator:
Over the next five days,

The team avoids the storm

And observes
for the remaining three nights.

Woman:
We are recording the data.

Narrator:
Their hard drives fill up

With over 6 million gigabytes
of precious data--

More storage than
12,000 laptop computers.

♪

In chile, alan roy and the team

Finish what's been
a tiring eight days.

Alan: This is coming up
to the end of the last run.

We've got maybe three minutes.

I'm feeling weary but,
but content.

Narrator: The team
has recorded their target

Of five nights of data.

But only when all the data
are combined together

Will they know if they
might see a black hole.

Neil nagar: This is
the interesting part. This is...

It's almost a game of bluff.

You've now spent more than
a week here at the telescopes,

Observed through the night,

And we still don't know if
anything will come out of this.

♪

Narrator: Over in cambridge,
shep is winding down.

Shep: This is the beginning
of the end, right?

I mean, this is not the end by
any stretch of the imagination.

We have a lot of work to do,
a lot of work to do.

But we've taken
this first big step.

Narrator: At the south pole,

After five months
of total darkness,

Flights resume once again.

Now the team can finally return
the last remaining hard drives

Back to the u.S. And germany

And complete the processing
from all eight telescopes.

At the black hole initiative,

Shep assembles team members
from around the world

To test how to turn
the new data into images.

Shep: The big challenge
that we face

In this technique
of the event horizon telescope

Is that we don't have

All the pixels in the image,
if you will.

We have some of the pixels,

So the art
is trying to figure out

What the entire image looks like

Without having, you know,

Everything that we'd
like to have.

Narrator: The team will test
different computer algorithms

To see if they can create
an accurate image.

But they won't attempt it on
the target black holes just yet.

Shep: First we're putting on
training wheels.

Right? We're taking baby steps.

And we're trying to use

The algorithms
that we want to use

For sag a-star and m87,

But on well-known sources
that are much brighter.

Narrator: These bright sources

Come from matter swirling
into what's believed to be

A feasting black hole.

As the black hole accelerates
the matter, it rips it apart

And launches jets of radiation
into space.

These are quasars.

They can kick out more energy
than a billion stars,

Leaving a signature jet that's
visible across the cosmos.

Shep: If we can get really good
images on those sources,

Then we know we'll be ready
to go to the next phase.

Narrator: Katie bouman
is leading one of the teams

Trying to make an image
of a quasar.

Katie bouman:
It's really exciting,

The first time we're actually
trying to make an image.

So, here is 3c120.

Narrator:
The quasar is too far away

To see the edge
of the black hole,

But the team knows
what the jet should look like

From existing telescopes.

But two days into this workshop,

The algorithms are not producing
one consistent image.

Woman: I can make an image
that looks like that,

And that's ridiculous.

Katie: We get a lot of
different kind of structures

Come out from the same data.

That's not a vote of confidence
in those images, I guess.

Narrator:
Physicist mareki honma

Is also not getting
a clear image.

Mareki honma:
Here is a very bright spot.

So we believe
there is something,

But the whole area,
it just looks like noise.

[chuckles]

Narrator: If the team can't get
the algorithms to work,

They won't be able to make
an image of a black hole.

The event horizon telescope team

Has linked data from
eight telescopes together

To try and capture
an image of a black hole.

The team has had problems

Creating a clear test image
of a quasar,

But after a week of coding,
the images start to improve.

And the jet has more detail

Than anything the team
has seen before.

Katie: I see this jet-like
kind of structure shooting out.

Ramesh: It's incredible.

Look at all the structure.

Shep: The team
has produced images now,

After going through
this whole pipeline,

That seem very robust.

So that's the key.

You have to be so confident
in your techniques

And your data handling,

That you trust them,

Because for sag a-star, for m87,

We have no idea
what we're gonna see.

Narrator: After more than
ten years of planning...

Gopal: Yay!

Narrator: $50 million,

And the combined brainpower

Of over 200
international scientists...

Remo: Attention, attention.

Doors and roof will be opening.

[speaking spanish]

Narrator:
Finally the time comes

To try and make an image
of a black hole.

Shep: This has been
a huge process,

A very, very careful process,

And the imaging team is now
getting the first set of data

That they can use to make
a photo of a black hole.

Katie: It's really exciting.

We just got the data,

And that's, you know,
what we've been waiting for

For many years,

So it's a pretty
exciting time for us.

Shep: This is the moment
when we finally get to see

What a black hole
might look like.

Narrator: Each member
of the team loads the data

And starts running
their algorithms.

Katie: Are we gonna--
are we doing this?

Shep: Let's see it.

Katie: Ok, ready...Set...

Go. Going, going, going...

♪

Narrator:
The algorithms are producing

Some tantalizing images.

Shep: This is very early stages,

This is exploratory surgery.

The patient is on the table,

We've opened the patient up,

We're looking inside,

We're trying to find out
what we see.

Narrator:
Each member of the team

Needs to zero in
on one consistent image.

Shep: That is interesting.

Whoa.

Katie: Ha ha!

I'm getting something
pretty similar, a little bit.

Narrator: And with the data
for the black hole m87,

One image soon becomes clear.

Katie:
I see a circle-y feature. Ha!

Narrator: A bright ring of light

Circling the shadow
of the black hole.

Shep: What I'm seeing
on the screen here

Is pretty startling.

This is a case where
the signal is so clear

That it kind of hits you
on the head with a hammer.

If this holds up,

It's going to be the discovery
of my lifetime,

And I think of many
other people's lifetime.

And...It's, uh,

It's really sobering to see
what a black hole looks like

For the first time.

Narrator: The image
shows photons of light

Being distorted into a ring
by the power of gravity.

In the center,

A black hole with the mass
of 6 billion suns

Is swallowing the light
that strays too close.

It is profound evidence

That confirms
the existence of black holes

First predicted
by einstein's theory of gravity.

Shep: This shows us
that space-time is distorted

In the way that einstein
felt it would be

At the black hole boundary,

At the most extreme environment
in the universe.

These photons are struggling to
get away from this black hole.

And the black hole
is tethering them

With its immense gravity.

And every once in a while,

Some of them can just
get away from the black hole

And come to us.

So we're seeing the very
definition of this surface

Where light is lost forever.

♪

Narrator: In 2019,

The event horizon telescope team
verified their data

And released their results
to the world.

♪

This is a groundbreaking
scientific result.

For the event horizon
telescope team,

They hope it could transform
the way we see the universe.

Tegmark:
When galileo first proved

That you can take pictures
of the sky with telescopes,

That didn't end astronomy;

It started it.

And in the same way,

The most important
scientific legacy

Of the event horizon telescope

Is gonna be the fact
that it creates

An entirely new field
of science.

Hughes: If I know astronomers,
when this thing is done,

They're gonna go, "ooh!
What else can we do with this?"

Greene: I can certainly envision

That 10, 30, 50 years from now,

Our description of black holes
are gonna be

Completely, radically different.

Narrator: For shep and the
event horizon telescope team,

They hope this is
just the beginning.

Shep: We're not done.

We don't actually like things

To be tied up in a bow
and finished.

This shows us how black holes
eat and how they feed

In a way that has been
impossible up to now.

This, most of all,

Signals a whole new direction
in astronomy.

And that's rare.

That is really extraordinary.