Live Updates
UPSC · English

EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE – SCI & TECH

Published 13 Feb 2024. Access the PDF directly or read the stored explanation below.

UPSC English 13 Feb 2024

EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE – SCI & TECH

News: Earth-wide telescope confirms black hole shadow is ‘real’

 

What's in the news?

●       Scientists have unveiled new details of a colossal black hole 53 million light years away first photographed by the earth-wide Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017.

●       The feat provided the first visual evidence that black holes exist, confirming a fundamental prediction of Einstein’s general relativity.

 

Key takeaways:

●       The Event Horizon Telescope is a worldwide network of radio telescopes that work together.

 

Key Findings by Event Horizon Telescope:

1. Improved Resolution & Coverage:

●       Major Event Horizon Telescope findings include improved resolution & Coverage as compared with previous one.

2. Valuable Insights:

●       It provides valuable information into the intricate dynamics near the Event horizon.

3. Bright Ring & Dark Central Region:

●       They again find a bright ring of the same size, with a dark central region and one side of the ring brighter than the other.

4. Asymmetric Ring Structure:

●       The finding confirmed the presence of an asymmetric ring structure consistent with Gravitational lensing.

5. Stable Ring Formation Process:

●       The findings have reaffirmed the Stable ring formation process & other physical characteristics.

 

Event Horizon Telescope:

●       It is a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration.

 

Objective:

●       It was designed to capture images of a black hole.

●       It offers scientists to research new frontiers of the Universe.

 

Technology Deployed:

●       The Event Horizon Telescope observations use a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) to capture the images of black holes.

 

Partners:

●       Thirteen partner institutions worked together to create the EHT.

●       Key funding was provided by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the EU's European Research Council (ERC), and funding agencies in East Asia.

 

EHT Array:

●       Atacama Large Millimeter Array

●       Atacama Pathfinder Experiment

●       Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope

●       IRAM 30m telescope

●       James Clerk Maxwell Telescope

●       Large Millimeter Telescope

●       South Pole Telescope

●       Sub-millimeter Array

Back to All Titbits
WhatsApp Book Free Demo