Sheperd Doeleman: Inside the black hole image that made history

Inside the black hole image that made history

At the center of a galaxy more than 55 million light-years away, there's a supermassive black hole with the mass of several billion suns. And now, for the first time ever, we can see it. Astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, head of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, speaks with TED's Chris Anderson about the iconic, first-ever image of a black hole -- and the epic, worldwide effort involved in capturing it.

Scientists achieved a breakthrough by capturing the first-ever image of a black hole at the center of galaxy M87, 55 million light-years away. This feat required synchronizing telescopes all over the world and collecting more data than could be sent over the internet. The iconic image shows a ring of light bent by gravity around a cosmic void large enough to swallow our solar system. The project united hundreds of researchers across continents, transforming Einstein’s century-old predictions into direct visual proof.