[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5991\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EEarth-sized telescope to photograph a black hole\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe proposed BlackHoleCam project, funded by the European Research Council, could provide new insights into one of the most enigmatic structures in the universe, and put Einstein\u2019s ideas to the test, as black holes are a consequence of his general theory of relativity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany black holes are thought to be the remains of large stars that imploded when they ran out of fuel. However, others are so massive that no one really knows how they came to form.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBased on the laws of motion devised by German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the 17\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E Century, scientists believe there must be one 4 million times heavier than the sun lying unseen in the centre of our galaxy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis theory gained strength when a mysterious radio source named Sagittarius A* was spotted at the heart of the Milky Way. According to Professor Heino Falcke, one of the project\u2019s three principal investigators, based at Radboud University in the Netherlands, these radio waves are produced by material being sucked up by the supermassive black hole.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWandering star\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If Sagittarius A* does house a black hole, the pull of gravity around it would be intense enough to tear apart wandering stars and clouds of gas, grinding them into a cauldron of atoms at temperatures above a billion degrees,\u2019 he said. \u2018Because hot matter emits radiation, this accreting material would let out a distinguishable emission of radio waves before being sucked into oblivion.\u2019\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018If this disk is inclined with respect to our line of sight, a black hole in its centre would absorb the radio waves emitted behind it, drawing its silhouette against the background of radiation.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Michael Kramer, Max Planck Institute, Germany\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe BlackHoleCam project, which is expected to start on 1 October, intends to confirm the existence of the black hole by mapping the shadow it casts against this bright backdrop of radio waves.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The accreting material presumably orbits Sagittarius A* in a disk-like formation,\u2019 said Professor Michael Kramer, from the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, another of the project\u2019s principal investigators. \u2018If this disk is inclined with respect to our line of sight, a black hole in its centre would absorb the radio waves emitted behind it, drawing its silhouette against the background of radiation.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut because black holes are extremely compact, even the supermassive behemoth at the centre of our galaxy would cast a shadow no wider than the orbit of Mercury around the sun.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe BlackHoleCam team is therefore pushing the resolution of today\u2019s radio telescopes to new limits, using a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry. The objective is to run an international network of telescopes in unison so that they act as a single Earth-sized radio dish.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EObservatories from around the world are supporting the project under the banner of the Event Horizon Telescope. Combining their measurements will require synchronisation to within a trillionth of a second and data processing algorithms which can account for perturbations as discrete as the drift of continental plates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, the results could challenge some of the fundamental assumptions of modern physics. \u2018Maybe the most exciting result would be that Einstein was wrong,\u2019 said Professor Luciano Rezzolla, the third principle investigator, who works at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Frankfurt am Main.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EVery Long Baseline Interferometry\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EVery Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a means of using data from several radio telescopes in different locations on earth. By networking the collected data from astronomic radio sources such as quasars, researchers can create a higher resolution image than any single array can capture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a similar way to the Global Positioning System (GPS), the radio telescopes record the precise time they receive their data. By comparing the differences in the recorded times by different arrays, cosmic bodies can be mapped in three dimensions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVLBI is currently used for tracking spacecraft and mapping distant sources of radio waves, but also, because the measurements are made at different points on earth, readings can be used to measure precise tectonic movements and the rotation of our planet.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-nialpmzxrn0pgf7xesxpotgprjgn67wqs9lbenjtsmm\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-NIalpMzXRn0pgF7XeSxpotgprJgn67wQs9LbenJTSmM\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]