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        • Astrocytes Expressing ALS-Linked Mutated SOD1 Release Factors Selectively Toxic to Motor Neurons
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    • 2013 Publication

EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE RESPONSE

Editor's Note: Stella S. ('18) wrote this piece in response to a New York Times article she wrote in her advanced chemistry course. 
During the last two weeks of March 2015, a dedicated team of scientists, using a “telescope as big as the world,” attempted to take the first ever picture of the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Milky Way.

Well, it wasn’t really a telescope as big as the earth. It was actually a network of radio antennas spread across the world, which does make it the largest ever network of radio antennas. They called this “telescope” the “Event Horizon Telescope,” named after the ambitious project, to take the first ever picture of the black hole in our galaxy, or at least its event horizon.

The network of the Event Horizon Telescope is comprised of seven telescopes spread across six different mountains. Each of the antennas was meticulously synchronized with new atomic clocks. The nerve center of the telescope, named the Large Millimeter Telescope, is on top of the Sierra Negra volcano – now inactive – in Mexico and successfully recorded some data over the five chances it had over the course of two weeks.

Unfortunately, weather impeded much of the process, but the telescope itself was an incredible accomplishment. A picture of a black hole would open a world of concurrent scientific interest.

To truly understand the potential awesomeness of this phenomena, it is important to understand a little bit about black holes and everything we know – and don’t know – about these celestial curiosities.  

Black holes are a result of the death of a supermassive star. When the supermassive star runs out of fuel, it begins to collapse and eventually the core implodes and collapses into itself. The gravitational pull inside of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape, hence the name “black” hole. Theoretically, the closest thing we can take a picture of is the “event horizon” which is the outer edge of a black hole. Ironically, the event horizon is one of the brightest things in the sky, because there is a great concentration of energy and light that appears before getting sucked in. Many scientists have theorized how you would die in a black hole – this question is known as the firewall paradox.  
Black holes grow with every bit of mass they consume and could be the factor determining the size of galaxies in which they exist. The shape and size of a black hole could confirm the validity of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is estimated to be equivalent to the mass of four million suns. Luckily for us, it is too far away to suck Earth in. And don’t worry, the Sun isn’t nearly massive enough to become a black hole.

In retrospect we know very little about black holes. So why are we spending so much effort trying to take a picture of this thing we can’t even see? The Event Horizon telescope could open a “hole” world of information that we have never even conceived. To put it bluntly, “everything we know about the universe could change if we could know for certain what happens to information inside a black hole” (Klein). This is what makes black holes so scary: that everything we know could be challenged by the information a black hole contains; and the closer we get to taking a picture of one, the closer we get to uncovering this intimidating unseen territory. 





Klein, J. (2015, June 8). An Earthling’s Guide to Black Holes. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.

​Overbye, D. (2015, June 8). Black Hole Hunters. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.
​

Overbye, D. (2015, December 28). Science News That Stuck With Us in 2015: Celestial Celebrations of Eistein. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.

​
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  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • HOW TO SUBMIT
  • Past Publications
    • 2019 Publication >
      • Scientific Research
      • Mathematical Exploration
      • Scientific Exploration
      • Computer Science
    • 2018 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Scientific Research
    • 2017 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Scientific Research
    • 2016 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
      • Scientific Research
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Artistic Creations
    • 2015 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Bell Curves
        • Birds Vs. Turbines
        • Energy in the Obama Era
        • The Future of Neuroscience
        • Gender Gap in Math
        • GMOs--Yes or No?
        • The History of Minecraft: How a Swedish Indie Game Came to Dominate the World
        • The Effect of Prozac on the Brain
        • Philae Lander's Discovery of Organic Molecules
        • Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Turbines
        • Your Own Worst Enemy: An Overview of Lupus
        • The Methylhex Ban
        • The Effect of Lyme Disease on the Immune system
        • Infectious Mononucleosis
        • Replacing CFCs
        • The Switch
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • The 43rd Figure
        • The Clock
        • The Collatz Conjecture
        • Constructing a Soccer Ball
        • Determining how Ballparks Affect Batter's Ability to Create Hits
        • The Rotating Conundrum
        • Pythagorean Puzzle
        • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
        • Kinetics Lab
        • Math in the Restaurant Business
        • Math as a Vessel for Social Change
        • Sustainability of Bottled Vs. Tap Water
        • Thoughts on the Lottery
        • Understanding Player Efficiency Rating
      • Scientific Research >
        • Communicating With Computers
        • The Mystery of Asthma
        • The Nanoscopic War Against Cancer
        • Phytochemistry
        • Solving the energy crisis with Intermediate Band Solar Cells
        • A Pain That Never Ends
        • Rapamycin Resistance
        • Ampacity of a Single Core Horizontal Cable
        • Morphological Properties of Texting Acronym Formation
        • cGAS and STING Expression
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Can Humans Survive the Climate Crisis?
        • My Experience as a Teacher's Assistant
        • Ted Talk Responses
        • Teens For Food Justice
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Chandelier
        • Deltoidal Hexacontrahedon
        • Dodecahedron Card Trick
        • Eye of the Triangle
        • Free Radric Delantic Davis
        • The Grid
        • What Does A Randomly Composed Song Sound Like?
        • Science Wing Mural
    • 2014 Publication >
      • Cover Photo
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Art Using the Fibonacci Sequence
        • Computer Generated Architecture and Designs
        • Mathematical Landscape
        • Math Art
        • Math in Music
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Algae Bio-Fuel
        • An Energy Alternative
        • Clean Energy In Transportation
        • Calorie Restriction
        • Creating Energy in the Modern World
        • Dietary Intervention Impact on Gut Microbial Gene Richness
        • Earthly Applications for NASA Technology
        • Explaining Relative Motion
        • Exploring Artificial Inteligence
        • Gamma Function
        • How Leaves Work
        • Hydrogen Fuel Cells
        • Music and Brain Development
        • Programming Calculators
        • The Science of Microsatellites
        • Sci-Fi Taser
        • Sloane's Gap
        • Sustainable Energy: Why Some Ideas Shine Brighter than Others
        • Understanding The Galvanic Cell
        • The Virus: Our Unforeseen Philosopher's Stone
        • What Are Fuel Cells and How Do They Work?
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • Astrocytes Expressing ALS-Linked Mutated SOD1 Release Factors Selectively Toxic to Motor Neurons
        • Big Bang
        • Dictyostelium Discoideum
        • The Future of Solar Cell Technology
        • And Many More...
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Alternative Energy Sources, New but Unused
        • An Insight Into the Curious World of Ethnobotany
        • Challenging What We Think We Know
        • The Current State of American Education
        • Discovering New Numbers
        • Interview With an Architect
        • Life of Pi Response
        • Mathematical Art Video Commentary
        • Missing from Science Class
        • The Museum of Math
        • The Inside Scoop on a Real Mathematician
    • 2013 Publication