Project of the Month: Highlighting the European contribution that led to that first ever image of a black hole

It is arguably one of the biggest scientific announcements of the decade: the first ever image of a real black hole, causing celebrations not just amongst physicists and astronomers but across the world for a truly major breakthrough in advancing humanity’s understanding of the universe.

Space

© European Union, 2019

And so this month’s Project of the Month feature is being held jointly by two projects. One, the BlackHoleCam project, has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and played a major role in the extensive international collaboration, Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The second Horizon 2020 project, RadioNet, helped Europe maintain and develop cutting-edge radio astronomy infrastructure that led to this fantastic achievement.

BlackHoleCam has been running since 2014 and aims at capturing the image of, measuring and understanding black holes, whilst RadioNet has the ambition of integrating world-class research infrastructures for research into radio astronomy.

For more information, please see:
cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/131035/en
erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/astronomers-reveal-first-ever-image-black-hole

“Fiction often inspires science, and black holes have long fuelled our dreams and curiosity. Today, thanks to the contribution of European scientists, the existence of black holes is no longer just a theoretical concept. This amazing discovery proves again how working together with partners around the world can lead to achieving the unthinkable and moving the horizons of our knowledge.”
- Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science & Innovation

If you are interested in having your project featured in ‘Project of the Month’ in an upcoming issue, please send us an email to [e-mail] and tell us why!

Countries

Germany, Netherlands