Photographing the invisible: first image of a black hole

Black holes, the most extravagant objects predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, are regions of space whose enormous mass produces a singularity or "hole" in which gravity is so high that not even light can escape. In April scientists were able to make a photograph of one of them, after joining the signals received by the different radio telescopes that make up the Event Horizon Telescope, a virtual telescope as big as the whole Earth.

This black hole, whose image has been captured thanks to an international collaboration of more than 200 astrophysicists, is about 55 million light years from Earth, in the center of the galaxy M87, and its image shows the horizon of events delineated by the light of matter that revolves around it. The ring of light is as big as 20 solar systems, and it can only be produced by a black hole as immense as 6,500 million times the mass of our Sun.

The astrophysicist José Luis Fernández Gómez is a member of the international consortium Event Horizon Telescope and the main developer of some of the computer algorithms used in obtaining the black hole image, he will explain the details of this astronomical milestone.

José Luis Fernández Gómez

Degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona in 1989, he completed his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, obtaining the degree of Doctor from the University of Granada in 1993. He completed his postdoctoral stay at the University of Boston between 1994 and 1996 , after which he returned to join the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (CSIC), where he is a Titular Scientist since 2002. his lines of work are: active galaxies and relativistic jets, both from the observational and theoretical point of view through simulations RMHD + emission.