The Real Science of the EHT Black Hole

So, how do you take a picture of a black hole? The beast in question is the supermassive black hole in the center of this – the M87 elliptical galaxy. It has an estimated mass of several billion times that of the Sun, which gives it an event horizon larger than the solar system. M87 is 53 million light years away, so resolving that black hole is equivalent to resolving a grain of stand on the beach in LA – if you’re standing in New York. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope would struggle to see a large watermelon over that distance.