Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

This Grad Student's Algorithm Helped Create the First Image of a Black Hole, and Her Reaction At First Seeing It Is Everything

This Grad Student's Algorithm Helped Create the First Image of a Black Hole, and Her Reaction At First Seeing It Is Everything
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration // TED/YouTube

Out of this world.

For the first time ever, humans saw a photo of a black hole on Tuesday.

Fifty million lightyears stretched between our home planet and the black hole's greedy event horizon, but with ten radio telescopes, hundreds of scientists, and one revelatory algorithm, the distance vanished as stunningly as light in the subject the researchers sought to capture.


Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

While globally interconnected telescopes assembling images from microscopic photons is nothing to sneer at, it was the algorithm (and others built off of it) that sorted from infinite fragments the images researchers were after, making the viral image possible.

That algorithm was developed three years ago by MIT grad student Dr. Katie Bouman, who worked with 200 scientists and the Event Horizon Telescope to generate the final assembly. She soon posted a photo on Facebook of her reaction to the triumphant moment the image was first assembled.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213321822457967&set=a.1407432103727&type=3&theater

The formula informing the original algorithm informed many others that helped bring scientific assurance of its effectiveness to researchers.

Bouman told CNN:

"We didn’t want to just develop one algorithm. We wanted to develop many different algorithms that all have different assumptions built into them. If all of them recover the same general structure, then that builds your confidence. No matter what we did, you would have to bend over backwards crazy to get something that wasn’t this ring.”

Bouman made sure to credit the various researchers whose work helped lead to this most recent landmark of human ingenuity.

https://www.facebook.com/katie.bouman.3/posts/10213326025523041

The photo of Bauman's first reaction has quickly gone viral.

Another image of Bouman placed alongside a historical parallel is taking the internet by storm as well.

Bouman is being compared to Margaret Hamilton—whose coding is partially credited with achieving the moon landing.

People can't stop sharing an image of Hamilton standing next to stacks of the handwritten coding placed side-by-side with one of Bouman next to stacks of hard drives forming the roughly 5 million gigabytes used to achieve the black hole images.

The image led people to share some of the great women of science whose achievements also paved the way for Hamilton and, now, Bouman.

Girls don't just run the world, they're revealing the universe.

More from News

Pete Hegseth; Ainsley Earhardt
Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images; Fox News

Fox News Host's Story About Pete Hegseth Eating Food Off The Floor Has People Grossed All The Way Out

Republican President Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is having his secrets exposed by his former Fox News coworkers. After stories of his excessive drinking were shared by Fox personnel, now his food safety practices are being shared.

On Wednesday, during Fox News' Outnumbered, the hosts discussed the so-called "five-second rule" for food. The "rule" relates to eating food after it's been dropped on the floor.

Keep ReadingShow less
Azealia Banks; Donald Trump
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

MAGA Rapper Azealia Banks Admits Trump's Presidency Is An 'Absolute Disaster' In Blunt Tweets

Controversial rapper Azealia Banks has buyer's remorse, making it clear she regrets her vote for President Donald Trump in a series of tweets, describing him as an "absolute disaster" who exhibits "crazy old white man anger."

Banks, who had previously attended a Trump rally and initially declared support for then-Vice President Kamala Harris—citing Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump campaign as a dealbreaker—ultimately reversed course.

Keep ReadingShow less
ICE agent smashes car window
Marilu Domingo Ortiz via Ondine Galvez-Sniffin

ICE Agent Smashes Immigrant's Car Window While He Waits For Lawyer In Harrowing Video

A Guatemalan family—in the United States under legal asylum status—is seeking answers from the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a violent interaction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Monday, ICE agents pulled over a Toyota driven by Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, as he and his wife, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, traveled to a dental appointment in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The couple called their lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, who advised they stay in their vehicle with the windows closed until she could get to them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Close-up shot of a beautiful young woman looking coyly into the camera. She wears a large black and white beach hat.
Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash

Women Describe The Times A Man Stood Out To Them For A Positive Reason

Guys can be a lot.

I attest to that as one.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump after assassination attempt
Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images

White House Slammed After Replacing Obama Portrait With Painting Of Trump's Assassination Attempt

The White House is facing heavy criticism after it posted a video on X showing off a new painting of President Donald Trump's assassination attempt last summer—that is now hanging where an official portrait of former President Barack Obama was once displayed.

The portrait of Obama, unveiled in 2022 during former President Joe Biden’s administration, remains on display in the White House but has been relocated. Originally hung near the staircase to the presidential residence on the State Floor, it has been moved to the opposite wall—where a portrait of former President George W. Bush once hung.

Keep ReadingShow less