Scientist Team Behind First Ever Image Of A Black Hole Wins $3 Million Breakthrough Prize

The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration who captured the first image of a black hole back in April this year has won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The 2020 Breakthrough Prize, renown as the “Oscars of Science”, awarded a total of $21.6 million to the greatest achievements in various fields including Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, Mathematics, and more.

More than 300 scientists who contributed to any of the six papers published on April 10 will share the $3 million Breakthrough prize. They have together succeeded in taking the image of the Messier 87’s monster black hole which is 55 million light years from Earth. 

The black hole have long been one of the most mysterious objects across the universe. But not until the accomplishment of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration did “the bottomless well of gravity” become observable. For this remarkable shot, scientists have synchronized observations from eight telescopes scattered across four regions, facilitating the creation of an Earth-sized observation instrument. 

The 347 team members will each receive an equal sum of $8,600 for their efforts and dedication. There’re already a variety of awards honoring excellent researchers who have contributed to the development of science and innovation. However, the Breakthrough Prize prominently offers the highest monetary reward. 

Katie Bouman: The woman behind the data processing algorithm

Katie Bouman, the spokeswoman of the team, alongside with other three members has developed the algorithm which was supposed to daily deal with 350TB of data per each radio telescope. Thanks to the algorithm, scientists were able to reconstruct an image with 2000x resolution as compared with the photo taken by the HubbleTelescope. 

Assuredly, that wasn’t the only achievement of Katie Bounman but all the hard work and sacrifice by the whole team. Harvard astronomer Shep Doeleman, the director of EHT said such award signified a touchstone for many people, and they would create more science with the instrument, including those in other fields.