On April 10, 2019, the world saw what many thought was unseeable. An international group of astronomers and scientists — called The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration — photographed a Black Hole. But while this first-ever image of a glowing orange ring was splashed across the front pages, buried in the back was the amazing story of how the team actually did it. A story of the herculean scientific work and dicey political maneuvering required from the researchers and scientists that spanned countries, continents, and institutions. In the second episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite uncovers the story of a team separated by time zones but united by the collective quest for the greatest cosmic discovery of our times. Shep Doeleman, co-founder of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, tells the tale along with insights from team member and professor of theoretical astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam Sera Markoff. We also hear from Avery Broderick, a black hole astrophysicist at the University of Waterloo, Paul Ho, Director of the East Asia Observatory in Taiwan, and Emily Conover, Physics Writer with Science News. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.
We are delighted to be able to report to you today that we have seen what we thought was unseeable.
An international scientific team unveiling the first ever image of a black hole today, April 10, 2019.
One of the most significant scientific accomplishments in history.
That's when we knew that we had done something extraordinary.
It's the environment that humanity came to be in, and it's the backdrop to our existence.
It was that good, you know, that it just blew our minds.
Maybe you've seen it.
The very first photo of a black hole.
It's a blurry, glowing orange ring on a black background.
But in case you're thinking that astronomers just pointed a telescope at a certain part of the sky and snapped a picture, well, it's the result of almost two decades of work and anhe international group of hundreds of people, a team called the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration.
I think this was really a testament to how large groups can function and work together and do extraordinary things, but at the same time, you never envision all the problems that you run up against.
I'm Gabriella Cowperthwaite, and this is teamistry, an original podcast from Atlassian.
This show is all about the chemistry of teams and what happens when people are so open to new ideas of working, innovating, and expressing themselves together.
They end up doing something amazing.
When I was a kid, the scariest things in the world were tidal waves, quicksand.
I thought they were just like little.
Pools of quicksand everywhere.
And black holes.
Was it really like a hole that you could fall into for sort of all eternity?
What would happen if you came close?