Black Hole Experts - M87
Imaging black holes and testing general relativity. A whirlpool of space and time: Black Holes and Tomorrow's Big Data.
New Test of General Relativity with Event Horizon Telescope
Einstein's theory of general relativity – the idea that gravity is matter warping spacetime – has withstood over 100 years of scrutiny and testing, including the newest test from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration led by University of Arizona astrophysicists. According to their findings, Einstein's theory just got 500 times harder to beat.
The new test of General Relativity the team developed uses the size of the shadow in the first-ever black hole image in M87 obtained by the EHT. By figuring out how each modification to Einstein’s theory affects the predicted shadow size, they were able to rule out many proposed alternatives that had passed all previous tests, which were performed in our Solar System and using binary neutron stars.
The University of Arizona team has pioneered the development of tests of General Relativity using the observational appearance of black holes. UArizona contributes three telescopes to the global EHT array, managing the SMT on Mt Graham, AZ and the 12 m telescope on Kitt Peak, AZ, and integrating the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica.
For more information, visit http://bhpire.arizona.edu/outreach/testing-gr/.
UArizona Experts | 2020
Dimitrios Psaltis
Principal Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
EHT Project Scientist 2016-2019
Professor of Astronomy - University of Arizona
Dimitrios Psaltis is Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Arizona. His research group pioneered the development of tests of the theory of general relativity using the observational appearance of black holes and neutron stars. As a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope, the international collaboration that has taken the first picture of a black hole, Psaltis served as Project Scientist from 2016-2019. He is the current Chair of the Theoretical Astrophysics Program, an interdisciplinary effort that develops theoretical astrophysics research initiatives across Astronomy, Physics, and Planetary Sciences.
Lia Medeiros
NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellow
Institute for Advanced Study
Lia Medeiros is a lead of the EHT Gravitational Inputs Working Group and an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. She graduated with her PhD in 2019 after completing her dissertation research at Steward Observatory. She develops simulations of accreting black holes and develops novel algorithms that perform model fitting and image reconstruction of EHT data based on simulations. She also simulates what black holes would look like if they differed from what is expected based on the Theory of General Relativity and compares these simulations to EHT observations.
Pierre Christian
Steward Observatory Prize Fellowship in Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics - University of Arizona
https://www.pierrechristian.com/
Pierre Christian is currently the Steward Observatory Theory Fellow at the University of Arizona. He completed his PhD in 2018 at Harvard University where he studied black hole and gravitational wave astrophysics. At the University of Arizona, his scientific work includes numerical and analytical studies of physical phenomena around black holes, as well as developing statistical tools to analyze astrophysical data. At the completion of his postdoctoral position at UArizona, he will be joining the physics faculty of Fairfield University.
Feryal Özel
EHT Science Council Member
Co-Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
Professor of Astronomy - University of Arizona
Feryal Özel is Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Arizona. Özel develops theoretical and computational methods to study black holes and neutron stars and to build models of their extreme environments. She made the first predictions of the images of nearby supermassive black holes at different wavelengths, which guided the development of the Event Horizon Telescope and the interpretation of the results. As a founding EHT member, she has been serving on the EHT Science Council since 2016 and was lead of the Modeling Working Group. Özel is chair of NASA’s Next Generation Mission Concept Study for the Lynx X-ray Observatory and has served as chair of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee.
News
Was Einstein Right?
Scientists at the University of Arizona are working with researchers around the world to help take the first-ever picture of a black hole. The outcome of this monumental effort will put Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to the test and involves an observatory of unprecedented size. Eight radio telescopes around the globe, including two that involve the UArizona, were synchronized into one, Earth-sized virtual telescope: The Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT.
How the University of Arizona is involved:
- Dimitrios Psaltis, EHT Project Scientist 2016-2019, and Professor of Astronomy and Physics. In all, 36 UArizona researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students are involved in the EHT project.
- UArizona is responsible for integrating 2 of the 8 telescopes that made up the EHT during the 2017 observation run.
- The Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona — the only EHT telescope on the North American continent
- The South Pole Telescope (SPT) at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
- UArizona pioneered Nvidia graphics processor-powered supercomputing used in high-performance videogaming and graphics computation to tackle a real-world, big-data science grand challenge.
- UArizona has been developing realistic simulations of the physical processes governing black holes, thought to be the universe's most extreme objects, as predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. These are being used to process EHT observation data, to ground-truth the expected results and to create scientifically accurate and visually stunning simulations of black hole environments.
- Chasing Einstein's Shadow: UA Helps Capture First Image of a Black Hole | UANews
- $3M Breakthrough Prize Goes to Black Hole Hunters Including UA Astrophysicists | UANews
- 21 UA Students Contributed to Global Effort Resulting in First Black Hole Image | UANews
- Engineering Grad Student Helps Capture First Image of Black Hole | UANews
- Black Holes Come to the Big Screen | UANews
- UA Leads Project on Big Data and Black Holes | UANews
- Testing Einstein: UA Student Simulates Thousands of Black Holes | UANews
- The incredible story behind the first image of a black hole | Wired.co.uk
- The Very First Image Of A Black Hole | Science Friday
- Student simulates thousands of black holes | Phys.org
- UA faculty, students part of global team that releases first photo of black hole | Tucson.com
- University of Arizona College of Science: Feryal Özel | Tucson.com
- Black Hole Apocalypse | PBS
- UA Focused on Project to Get First Images of Black Holes | Arizona Public Media
- Animation Black Holes | Massive Science
- Telescope Array on Track to Image Black Hole "Shadows" | CBS News
- Worldwide Telescope Network Will Take Best-Ever Images of Black Holes | Space.com
- Scientists Plan to Capture Image of Black Hole's 'Point of No Return' | ABC News
- A Black Hole Looks Like What? | Vox.com
- Effort to Image Black Hole, a Chance to Rule on Einstein | Phys.org
- Black Hole, Antarctic Sea Temps No Problem for UA Computers | Tucson.com
- How to Hunt for a Black Hole With a Telescope the Size of Earth | Nature.com
About EHT and PIRE
To see the unseen, it takes a telescope as big as Earth. During an observation run in April 2017, the EHT collected 5,000 trillion bytes, or 5 peta bytes — enough to populate a music playlist of high-quality mp3 files to last 4,700 years of playtime — over the course of just four nights.
To help scientists analyze and synchronize the torrential amounts of data generated by the EHT, the National Science Foundation has awarded $6 million over five years under a PIRE grant (Partnerships for International Research and Education), with partnering institutions around the world providing an additional $3 million. Headquartered at the University of Arizona, PIRE is a project to develop new technologies that enable scientists to store, transfer and make sense of unprecedented amounts of data, such as those generated by the globe-spanning telescope.
Under UArizona leadership, the PIRE team spearheads the development of computational resources specifically designed to unlock the groundbreaking scientific discoveries the EHT is expected to make over its lifetime. The PIRE project is expected to spin off emerging technologies with applications ranging from self-driving cars and renewable energy production to augmented reality and national defense.
UArizona Experts | 2019
Principal Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
EHT Project Scientist 2016-2019
Professor of Astronomy - University of Arizona
dpsaltis@email.arizona.edu
520-621-7859
Dimitrios Psaltis is Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Arizona. His research group pioneered the development of tests of the theory of general relativity using the observational appearance of black holes and neutron stars. As a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope, the international collaboration that has taken the first picture of a black hole, Psaltis served as Project Scientist from 2016-2019. He is the current Chair of the Theoretical Astrophysics Program, an interdisciplinary effort that develops theoretical astrophysics research initiatives across Astronomy, Physics, and Planetary Sciences.
EHT Science Council Member
Co-Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
Professor of Astronomy - University of Arizona
fozel@email.arizona.edu
520-621-7096
Feryal Özel is Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Arizona. Özel develops theoretical and computational methods to study black holes and neutron stars and to build models of their extreme environments. She made the first predictions of the images of nearby supermassive black holes at different wavelengths, which guided the development of the Event Horizon Telescope and the interpretation of the results. As a founding EHT member, she has been serving on the EHT Science Council since 2016 and was lead of the Modeling Working Group. Özel is chair of NASA’s Next Generation Mission Concept Study for the Lynx X-ray Observatory and has served as chair of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee.
EHT Science Council Member
Principal Investigator of the EHT Receiving System for the South Pole Telescope
EHT Lead of Time Domain Working Group
Co-Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
University of Arizona Associate Professor of Astronomy
dmarrone@email.arizona.edu
520-621-5175
Dan Marrone is an EHT Science Council member, Principal Investigator of the receiving system for the South Pole Telescope, and Lead of the EHT Time Domain working group. Marrone, a University of Arizona Associate Professor of Astronomy, is responsible for building, installing and maintaining the EHT receiving and recording system at the South Pole Telescope. He is also responsible for testing and operating the EHT observing systems for the two Arizona telescopes: The Submillimeter Telescope on Mt. Graham and the 12-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. Marrone is an expert on the polarization and variability of the Galactic Center black hole.
EHT Lead of Computations and Software Working Group
Senior Investigator of Black Hole PIRE Project
University of Arizona Assistant Astronomer
University of Arizona Data Science Institute Fellow
chanc@email.arizona.edu
520-621-9532
Chi-kwan Chan is a lead of the EHT computational and data processing efforts and an Assistant Astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory. He has developed new algorithms to study turbulent plasma around black holes, spearheaded the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate modeling of black hole images, architected cloud computing infrastructures to handle big observational data, and applied machine learning algorithms to speed up and automate data processing.
Member of the Event Horizon Telescope Institutional Board
University of Arizona Department Head of Astronomy and Director of the Steward Observatory
buelljannuzi@email.arizona.edu
520-621-6524
Buell Jannuzi is a member of the EHT Institutional Board and the UA Department Head of Astronomy and Director of Steward Observatory. His main scientific interests include the formation and evolution of individual, group and large-scale structures of galaxies and the determination of the physical processes that produce quasars and other active galactic nuclei. Jannuzi has been heavily involved with many major surveys of the universe, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronomer, National Optical Astronomy Observatory
lauer@noao.edu
520-318-8290
Tod Lauer is an EHT co-investigator and an astronomer on the research staff of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. He is an expert on methods of image processing and reconstruction. A large part of his research career has been to use the Hubble Space Telescope to identify and characterize super-massive black holes at the centers of nearby galaxies.
