🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 99 (from laksa103)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa099.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole\/","crawl_time":1776802459,"first_indexed_time":1554904267,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,wired!www,\/story\/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole\/ s443","src_root_hash":"5736512710119187299","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"The First Black Hole Picture Has Finally Been Revealed | WIRED","meta_descriptions":["The Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"In the century\nsince Einstein predicted the existence of\nblack holes\nin his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming\nevidence for the things\n. They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole.\nThe picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says.\nWIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works\nYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more.\nPreviously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work.\nThe South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image.\nDan Marrone\/University of Arizona\nThis black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second.\nTo see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile.\nM87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter.\nMost Popular\nTo capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one.\nChi-Kwan Chan\/University of Arizona\nIt took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them.\nBut they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.”\nEverything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a\nwormhole\nin spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says.\nMost Popular\nThis image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves.\nMore Great WIRED Stories\nWhy a new crop of electric SUV batteries\ncome up short\nIs it OK to\nmake your dog vegan\n?\nCoding is for everyone—as long as\nyou speak English\nCelebrating Tower Bridge,\nLondon's engineering marvel\nThe\nbody pullers\nof Raqqa, Syria\n👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest\nbuying guides\nand\nbest deals\nall year round\n📩 Want more?\nSign up for our daily newsletter\nand never miss our latest and greatest stories","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to main content](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole\/#main-content)\n\n[SECURITY](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/security\/)\n\n[POLITICS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/politics\/)\n\n[THE BIG STORY](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/big-story\/)\n\n[BUSINESS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/business\/)\n\n[SCIENCE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/science\/)\n\n[CULTURE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/culture\/)\n\n[REVIEWS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[Security](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/security\/)\n\n[Politics](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/politics\/)\n\n[The Big Story](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/big-story\/)\n\n[Business](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/business\/)\n\n[Science](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/science\/)\n\n[Culture](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/culture\/)\n\n[Reviews](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n\nMore\n\n[The Big Interview](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/the-big-interview\/)[Magazine](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/magazine\/)[Events](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wired-events\/)[WIRED Insider](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/collection\/wiredinsider\/)[WIRED Consulting](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wired-consulting\/)\n\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav)\n\n[Podcasts](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/podcasts\/)\n\n[Video](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/video\/)\n\n[Livestreams](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/livestreams)\n\n[Merch](https:\/\/shop.wired.com\/)\n\n[Search](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/search\/)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/auth\/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Fscientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION)\n\n[START FREE TRIAL](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_DRAWER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[![ZOOM IN \\<br\\> Subscribe today for only \\<del\\>\\$4\\<\/del\\> \\<strong\\>\\$2\/month\\<\/strong\\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \\<strong\\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\\<\/strong\\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/assets.bonappetit.com\/photos\/686ea38fcb59aaabef7a795d\/original\/pass\/Wired_Zoom_Rollover_300x200_v2a_Shorter.gif?format=original)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_NAV_ROLLOVER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/auth\/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Fscientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION)\n\nThe intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to **5 all-new premium newsletters.** [START FREE TRIAL](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_PAYWALL_THIN_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[Sophia Chen](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/sophia-chen\/)\n\n[Science](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/science)\n\nApr 10, 2019 9:45 AM\n# Scientists Reveal the First Picture of a Black Hole\n\nThe Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away.\n\n![first image of a black hole](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5cadec1fb75f9b23c6466d74\/3:2\/w_2560%2Cc_limit\/blackhole.jpg)\n\nThe Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light years away.Photograph: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.\n\nSave this story\n\nSave this story\n\nIn the century since Einstein predicted the existence of [black holes](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/an-astronomer-explains-black-holes-at-5-levels-of-difficulty\/) in his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming [evidence for the things](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/black-holes\/). They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole.\n\nThe picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says.\n\n### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works\nYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more.\n\nPreviously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work.\n\n![south pole telescope](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5cadeea84af32a21e8b0efa4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/SouthPoleTelescopebytheUniversityofArizonaDanMarrone.jpg)\n\nThe South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image.\n\nDan Marrone\/University of Arizona\n\nThis black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second.\n\nTrending Now\n\n[Astronomer Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/video\/watch\/astronomer-explains-one-concept-in-5-levels-of-difficulty)\n\nTo see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile.\n\nM87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter.\n\nMost Popular\n\n- [![MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e17bf83768d90cb0bbfa58\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Politics\n  \n  [MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By David Gilbert\n- [![They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e261f2c08b65b67742964b\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Boone Ashworth\n- [![The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69deb8f5fa20dbfacc2b0a3c\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Artificial Intelligence\n  \n  [The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Matt Burgess\n- [![6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69dfa5c37e53dbff73e9fdb2\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Environment\n  \n  [6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Lorenzo Lamperti\n\n![simulation of a black hole](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5cadee53ee62091f97c4d891\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/blackhole_chi-kwanchan.gif)\n\nTo capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one.\n\nChi-Kwan Chan\/University of Arizona\n\nIt took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them.\n\nBut they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.”\n\nEverything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a [wormhole](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/information-escape-wormholes\/) in spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says.\n\nMost Popular\n\n- [![MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e17bf83768d90cb0bbfa58\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Politics\n  \n  [MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By David Gilbert\n- [![They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e261f2c08b65b67742964b\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Boone Ashworth\n- [![The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69deb8f5fa20dbfacc2b0a3c\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Artificial Intelligence\n  \n  [The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Matt Burgess\n- [![6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69dfa5c37e53dbff73e9fdb2\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  Environment\n  \n  [6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Lorenzo Lamperti\n\nThis image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves.\n\nMore Great WIRED Stories\n\n- Why a new crop of electric SUV batteries [come up short](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/audi-e-tron-epa-range-anxiety-batteries\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- Is it OK to [make your dog vegan](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/is-it-ok-to-make-your-dog-vegan\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)?\n- Coding is for everyone—as long as [you speak English](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- Celebrating Tower Bridge, [London's engineering marvel](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/london-tower-bridge-125th-anniversary-gallery\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- The [body pullers](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/body-pullers-syria\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) of Raqqa, Syria\n- 👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest [buying guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/buying-guides\/?BottomRelatedStories) and [best deals](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/deals\/?BottomRelatedStories) all year round\n- 📩 Want more? [Sign up for our daily newsletter](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter\/?name=daily&sourceCode=BottomStories) and never miss our latest and greatest stories\n\n[Sophia Chen](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/sophia-chen\/) covers physics, engineering, and data science for WIRED. ... [Read More](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/sophia-chen)\n\nContributor\n\nTopics[space](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/space\/)[black holes](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/black-holes\/)[telescopes](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/telescopes\/)\n\n### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works\nYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more.\n\nRead More\n\n[![How Can Astronauts Tell How Fast They’re Going?](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e17277511f2181a178ed2e\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/how-can-astronauts-tell-how-fast-theyre-going\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[How Can Astronauts Tell How Fast They’re Going?](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/how-can-astronauts-tell-how-fast-theyre-going\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nWeirdly, spaceships have no direct way to gauge their own speed. Luckily, we can use some physics tricks to figure it out.\n\nRhett Allain\n\n[![The Trajectory of the Artemis II Moon Mission Is a Feat of Engineering](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cfc8e8eb0352c3f10a93a3\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-trajectory-of-the-artemis-ii-moon-mission-is-a-feat-of-engineering\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The Trajectory of the Artemis II Moon Mission Is a Feat of Engineering](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-trajectory-of-the-artemis-ii-moon-mission-is-a-feat-of-engineering\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe astronauts will arrive about 10,300 kilometers beyond our satellite, breaking all previous records for distance from Earth. But how was their route chosen?\n\nLuca Nardi\n\n[![The Future of the Artemis Program Is Riding on Reentry](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d9224e67ec9ebaea2e242b\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-future-of-the-artemis-program-is-riding-on-reentry\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The Future of the Artemis Program Is Riding on Reentry](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-future-of-the-artemis-program-is-riding-on-reentry\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nEntire space programs have been canceled after a failure in the reentry phase. In the final test for Artemis II, astronauts will travel at 32 times the speed of sound as they return from the moon.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe moon gets hit by space debris all the time, but some of it is so large that the impact generates light that can be seen thousands of kilometers away.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69dfb6527e53dbff73e9fde2\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/nasa-wants-to-put-nuclear-reactors-on-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/nasa-wants-to-put-nuclear-reactors-on-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe White House has announced that NASA will work with the Departments of Defense and Energy to put nuclear reactors in orbit and on the surface of the moon.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![Artemis II: Everything We Know as Its Crew Approaches the Far Side of the Moon](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d3b6e624732acbbf30e93c\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-everything-we-know-as-orion-approaches-the-far-side-of-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Artemis II: Everything We Know as Its Crew Approaches the Far Side of the Moon](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-everything-we-know-as-orion-approaches-the-far-side-of-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nArtemis II remains on course for its lunar flyby as the crew shares historic photos of Earth, tests key systems for future lunar missions, and attempts to fix the toilet.\n\nJavier Carbajal\n\n[![Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69e12b860d58c6570f78e85b\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/dark-matter-may-be-made-of-black-holes-from-another-universe\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/dark-matter-may-be-made-of-black-holes-from-another-universe\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nA model of the cyclic universe suggests that dark matter could be a population of black holes predating the Big Bang.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![Artemis II Mission Launches Successfully](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cdc8b72391edcacfeb9147\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-moon-mission-launches-successfully\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Artemis II Mission Launches Successfully](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-moon-mission-launches-successfully\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe crew of Artemis II will not descend to the moon, but their capsule will fly over the far side of its surface.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![The US Military’s GPS Software Is an \\$8 Billion Mess](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cbface4423e18d6fcaca64\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-us-militarys-gps-software-is-an-8-billion-mess\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The US Military’s GPS Software Is an \\$8 Billion Mess](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-us-militarys-gps-software-is-an-8-billion-mess\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System was due for completion in 2016. Ten years later, the software for controlling the military’s GPS satellites still doesn’t work.\n\nStephen Clark, Ars Technica\n\n[![Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69ce8fe133c5c2ccc368bfb2\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-microsoft-outlook-problems\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-microsoft-outlook-problems\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe mission commander’s email inbox failed during the journey to the moon. Have they tried turning the computer off and back on again?\n\nJeremy White\n\n[![5 Mysteries That the Artemis Missions to the Moon Could Finally Solve](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cfd1245a6a0e1931a72ffe\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/5-mysteries-that-the-artemis-missions-to-the-moon-could-finally-solve\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[5 Mysteries That the Artemis Missions to the Moon Could Finally Solve](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/5-mysteries-that-the-artemis-missions-to-the-moon-could-finally-solve\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe moon is not just a barren rock orbiting the Earth. The Artemis missions could answer the great unknowns that the satellite holds.\n\nJorge Garay\n\n[![Bremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69dd15810d4515fda63e6849\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/bremont-is-sending-a-watch-to-the-moon-surface\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Bremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/bremont-is-sending-a-watch-to-the-moon-surface\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1)\n\nBremont’s Supernova Chronograph will be attached to the chassis of Astrolab’s FLIP rover, which will land on the moon later this year.\n\nTim Barber\n\n[![ZOOM IN \\<br\\> Insights at the intersection of technology, power, and culture \\<br\\> Subscribe today for only \\<del\\>\\$4\\<\/del\\> \\<strong\\>\\$2\/month\\<\/strong\\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \\<strong\\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\\<\/strong\\> \\<br\\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/assets.bonappetit.com\/photos\/686ea46a1d57bf34560db527\/original\/pass\/Wired_Zoom_Footer_Desktop_940x140_v2e.gif?format=original)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_FOOTER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ)\n\n[![WIRED](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/verso\/static\/wired-us\/assets\/logo-reverse.svg)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/)\n\nWIRED is obsessed with what comes next. 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WIRED: For Future Reference.\n\nMore From WIRED\n\n- [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/subscribe\/)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=HeaderAndFooter)\n- [Livestreams](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/livestreams)\n- [Travel](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/travel\/)\n- [FAQ](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/faq\/)\n- [WIRED Staff](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-staff\/)\n- [WIRED Education](https:\/\/www.wirededucation.com\/)\n- [Editorial Standards](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-on-background-policy\/)\n- [Archive](https:\/\/archive.wired.com\/t\/storefront\/storefront)\n- [RSS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/rss-feeds\/)\n- [Site Map](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/sitemap\/)\n- [Accessibility Help](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/accessibility-help\/)\n\nReviews and Guides\n\n- [Reviews](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n- [Buying Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/buying-guides\/)\n- [Streaming Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/culture-guides\/)\n- [Wearables](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wearables\/)\n- [Coupons](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/coupons\/)\n- [Gift Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/gift-guides\/)\n\n- [Advertise](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/brands\/wired)\n- [Contact Us](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/feedback\/)\n- [Manage Account](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/account\/profile)\n- [Jobs](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-jobs\/)\n- [Press Center](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/press\/)\n- [Condé Nast Store](https:\/\/condenaststore.com\/)\n- [User Agreement](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/user-agreement\/)\n- [Privacy Policy](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy)\n- [Your California Privacy Rights](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california)\n\n© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. *WIRED* may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. [Ad Choices](http:\/\/www.aboutads.info\/)\n\n###### Select international site\nUnited States\n\n- [Italia](https:\/\/www.wired.it\/)\n- [Japón](https:\/\/wired.jp\/)\n- [Czech Republic & Slovakia](https:\/\/www.wired.cz\/)\n\nYour Privacy Choices","attrs_readable_markdown":"In the century since Einstein predicted the existence of [black holes](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/an-astronomer-explains-black-holes-at-5-levels-of-difficulty\/) in his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming [evidence for the things](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/black-holes\/). They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole.\n\nThe picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says.\n\n### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works\nYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more.\n\nPreviously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work.\n\n![south pole telescope](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5cadeea84af32a21e8b0efa4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/SouthPoleTelescopebytheUniversityofArizonaDanMarrone.jpg)\n\nThe South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image.Dan Marrone\/University of Arizona\n\nThis black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second.\n\nTo see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile.\n\nM87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter.\n\nMost Popular\n\n![simulation of a black hole](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5cadee53ee62091f97c4d891\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/blackhole_chi-kwanchan.gif)\n\nTo capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one.Chi-Kwan Chan\/University of Arizona\n\nIt took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them.\n\nBut they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.”\n\nEverything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a [wormhole](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/information-escape-wormholes\/) in spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says.\n\nMost Popular\n\nThis image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves.\n\nMore Great WIRED Stories\n\n- Why a new crop of electric SUV batteries [come up short](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/audi-e-tron-epa-range-anxiety-batteries\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- Is it OK to [make your dog vegan](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/is-it-ok-to-make-your-dog-vegan\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)?\n- Coding is for everyone—as long as [you speak English](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- Celebrating Tower Bridge, [London's engineering marvel](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/london-tower-bridge-125th-anniversary-gallery\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)\n- The [body pullers](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/body-pullers-syria\/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) of Raqqa, Syria\n- 👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest [buying guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/buying-guides\/?BottomRelatedStories) and [best deals](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/deals\/?BottomRelatedStories) all year round\n- 📩 Want more? 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The First Black Hole Picture Has Finally Been Revealed | WIRED

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The Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away.

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In the century since Einstein predicted the existence of black holes in his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming evidence for the things . They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole. The picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says. WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works Your weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Previously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work. The South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image. Dan Marrone/University of Arizona This black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second. To see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile. M87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter. Most Popular To capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one. Chi-Kwan Chan/University of Arizona It took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them. But they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.” Everything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a wormhole in spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says. Most Popular This image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves. More Great WIRED Stories Why a new crop of electric SUV batteries come up short Is it OK to make your dog vegan ? Coding is for everyone—as long as you speak English Celebrating Tower Bridge, London's engineering marvel The body pullers of Raqqa, Syria 👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest buying guides and best deals all year round 📩 Want more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss our latest and greatest stories

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[Skip to main content](https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole/#main-content) [SECURITY](https://www.wired.com/category/security/) [POLITICS](https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) [THE BIG STORY](https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) [BUSINESS](https://www.wired.com/category/business/) [SCIENCE](https://www.wired.com/category/science/) [CULTURE](https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) [REVIEWS](https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) [SUBSCRIBE](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ) [Newsletters](https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) [SUBSCRIBE](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ) [Security](https://www.wired.com/category/security/) [Politics](https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) [The Big Story](https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) [Business](https://www.wired.com/category/business/) [Science](https://www.wired.com/category/science/) [Culture](https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) [Reviews](https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) More [The Big Interview](https://www.wired.com/the-big-interview/)[Magazine](https://www.wired.com/magazine/)[Events](https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-events/)[WIRED Insider](https://www.wired.com/collection/wiredinsider/)[WIRED Consulting](https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-consulting/) [Newsletters](https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) [Podcasts](https://www.wired.com/podcasts/) [Video](https://www.wired.com/video/) [Livestreams](https://www.wired.com/livestreams) [Merch](https://shop.wired.com/) [Search](https://www.wired.com/search/) [Sign In](https://www.wired.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Fscientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION) [START FREE TRIAL](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_DRAWER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ) [![ZOOM IN \<br\> Subscribe today for only \<del\>\$4\</del\> \<strong\>\$2/month\</strong\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \<strong\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\</strong\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https://assets.bonappetit.com/photos/686ea38fcb59aaabef7a795d/original/pass/Wired_Zoom_Rollover_300x200_v2a_Shorter.gif?format=original)](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_NAV_ROLLOVER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ) [Sign In](https://www.wired.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Fscientists-reveal-the-first-picture-of-a-black-hole%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION) The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to **5 all-new premium newsletters.** [START FREE TRIAL](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_PAYWALL_THIN_0_US_ACQ_NLI_CONTROL_GENERIC_ZZ) [Sophia Chen](https://www.wired.com/author/sophia-chen/) [Science](https://www.wired.com/category/science) Apr 10, 2019 9:45 AM # Scientists Reveal the First Picture of a Black Hole The Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. ![first image of a black hole](https://media.wired.com/photos/5cadec1fb75f9b23c6466d74/3:2/w_2560%2Cc_limit/blackhole.jpg) The Event Horizon Telescope has captured a photo of a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light years away.Photograph: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al. Save this story Save this story In the century since Einstein predicted the existence of [black holes](https://www.wired.com/story/an-astronomer-explains-black-holes-at-5-levels-of-difficulty/) in his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming [evidence for the things](https://www.wired.com/tag/black-holes/). They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole. The picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says. ### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works Your weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Previously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work. ![south pole telescope](https://media.wired.com/photos/5cadeea84af32a21e8b0efa4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/SouthPoleTelescopebytheUniversityofArizonaDanMarrone.jpg) The South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image. Dan Marrone/University of Arizona This black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second. Trending Now [Astronomer Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty](https://www.wired.com/video/watch/astronomer-explains-one-concept-in-5-levels-of-difficulty) To see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile. M87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter. Most Popular - [![MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e17bf83768d90cb0bbfa58/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Politics [MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By David Gilbert - [![They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e261f2c08b65b67742964b/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Gear [They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https://www.wired.com/story/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Boone Ashworth - [![The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https://media.wired.com/photos/69deb8f5fa20dbfacc2b0a3c/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Artificial Intelligence [The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Matt Burgess - [![6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https://media.wired.com/photos/69dfa5c37e53dbff73e9fdb2/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Environment [6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https://www.wired.com/story/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Lorenzo Lamperti ![simulation of a black hole](https://media.wired.com/photos/5cadee53ee62091f97c4d891/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/blackhole_chi-kwanchan.gif) To capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one. Chi-Kwan Chan/University of Arizona It took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them. But they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.” Everything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a [wormhole](https://www.wired.com/story/information-escape-wormholes/) in spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says. Most Popular - [![MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e17bf83768d90cb0bbfa58/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Politics [MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged](https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By David Gilbert - [![They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e261f2c08b65b67742964b/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Gear [They Built the ‘Cursor for Hardware.’ Now, Anthropic Wants In](https://www.wired.com/story/schematik-is-cursor-for-hardware-anthropic-wants-in-on-it/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Boone Ashworth - [![The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https://media.wired.com/photos/69deb8f5fa20dbfacc2b0a3c/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Artificial Intelligence [The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought](https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-schools-global-crisis/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Matt Burgess - [![6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https://media.wired.com/photos/69dfa5c37e53dbff73e9fdb2/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) Environment [6,000 Meters Under the Pacific, Japan Seeks Independence From China on Rare Earths](https://www.wired.com/story/under-the-pacific-japan-seeks-independence-from-china-on-rare-earths/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_c225aa55-3778-41ef-83e5-41a024043ab3_popular4-2) By Lorenzo Lamperti This image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves. More Great WIRED Stories - Why a new crop of electric SUV batteries [come up short](https://www.wired.com/story/audi-e-tron-epa-range-anxiety-batteries/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - Is it OK to [make your dog vegan](https://www.wired.com/story/is-it-ok-to-make-your-dog-vegan/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)? - Coding is for everyone—as long as [you speak English](https://www.wired.com/story/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - Celebrating Tower Bridge, [London's engineering marvel](https://www.wired.com/story/london-tower-bridge-125th-anniversary-gallery/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - The [body pullers](https://www.wired.com/story/body-pullers-syria/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) of Raqqa, Syria - 👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest [buying guides](https://www.wired.com/tag/buying-guides/?BottomRelatedStories) and [best deals](https://www.wired.com/tag/deals/?BottomRelatedStories) all year round - 📩 Want more? [Sign up for our daily newsletter](https://www.wired.com/newsletter/?name=daily&sourceCode=BottomStories) and never miss our latest and greatest stories [Sophia Chen](https://www.wired.com/author/sophia-chen/) covers physics, engineering, and data science for WIRED. ... [Read More](https://www.wired.com/author/sophia-chen) Contributor Topics[space](https://www.wired.com/tag/space/)[black holes](https://www.wired.com/tag/black-holes/)[telescopes](https://www.wired.com/tag/telescopes/) ### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works Your weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Read More [![How Can Astronauts Tell How Fast They’re Going?](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e17277511f2181a178ed2e/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/how-can-astronauts-tell-how-fast-theyre-going/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [How Can Astronauts Tell How Fast They’re Going?](https://www.wired.com/story/how-can-astronauts-tell-how-fast-theyre-going/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) Weirdly, spaceships have no direct way to gauge their own speed. Luckily, we can use some physics tricks to figure it out. Rhett Allain [![The Trajectory of the Artemis II Moon Mission Is a Feat of Engineering](https://media.wired.com/photos/69cfc8e8eb0352c3f10a93a3/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/the-trajectory-of-the-artemis-ii-moon-mission-is-a-feat-of-engineering/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [The Trajectory of the Artemis II Moon Mission Is a Feat of Engineering](https://www.wired.com/story/the-trajectory-of-the-artemis-ii-moon-mission-is-a-feat-of-engineering/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The astronauts will arrive about 10,300 kilometers beyond our satellite, breaking all previous records for distance from Earth. But how was their route chosen? Luca Nardi [![The Future of the Artemis Program Is Riding on Reentry](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d9224e67ec9ebaea2e242b/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/the-future-of-the-artemis-program-is-riding-on-reentry/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [The Future of the Artemis Program Is Riding on Reentry](https://www.wired.com/story/the-future-of-the-artemis-program-is-riding-on-reentry/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) Entire space programs have been canceled after a failure in the reentry phase. In the final test for Artemis II, astronauts will travel at 32 times the speed of sound as they return from the moon. Jorge Garay [![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The moon gets hit by space debris all the time, but some of it is so large that the impact generates light that can be seen thousands of kilometers away. Jorge Garay [![NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon](https://media.wired.com/photos/69dfb6527e53dbff73e9fde2/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/nasa-wants-to-put-nuclear-reactors-on-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon](https://www.wired.com/story/nasa-wants-to-put-nuclear-reactors-on-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The White House has announced that NASA will work with the Departments of Defense and Energy to put nuclear reactors in orbit and on the surface of the moon. Jorge Garay [![Artemis II: Everything We Know as Its Crew Approaches the Far Side of the Moon](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d3b6e624732acbbf30e93c/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-everything-we-know-as-orion-approaches-the-far-side-of-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Artemis II: Everything We Know as Its Crew Approaches the Far Side of the Moon](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-everything-we-know-as-orion-approaches-the-far-side-of-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) Artemis II remains on course for its lunar flyby as the crew shares historic photos of Earth, tests key systems for future lunar missions, and attempts to fix the toilet. Javier Carbajal [![Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe](https://media.wired.com/photos/69e12b860d58c6570f78e85b/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/dark-matter-may-be-made-of-black-holes-from-another-universe/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Dark Matter May Be Made of Black Holes From Another Universe](https://www.wired.com/story/dark-matter-may-be-made-of-black-holes-from-another-universe/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) A model of the cyclic universe suggests that dark matter could be a population of black holes predating the Big Bang. Jorge Garay [![Artemis II Mission Launches Successfully](https://media.wired.com/photos/69cdc8b72391edcacfeb9147/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-moon-mission-launches-successfully/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Artemis II Mission Launches Successfully](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-moon-mission-launches-successfully/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The crew of Artemis II will not descend to the moon, but their capsule will fly over the far side of its surface. Jorge Garay [![The US Military’s GPS Software Is an \$8 Billion Mess](https://media.wired.com/photos/69cbface4423e18d6fcaca64/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-militarys-gps-software-is-an-8-billion-mess/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [The US Military’s GPS Software Is an \$8 Billion Mess](https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-militarys-gps-software-is-an-8-billion-mess/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System was due for completion in 2016. Ten years later, the software for controlling the military’s GPS satellites still doesn’t work. Stephen Clark, Ars Technica [![Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems](https://media.wired.com/photos/69ce8fe133c5c2ccc368bfb2/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-microsoft-outlook-problems/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-microsoft-outlook-problems/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The mission commander’s email inbox failed during the journey to the moon. Have they tried turning the computer off and back on again? Jeremy White [![5 Mysteries That the Artemis Missions to the Moon Could Finally Solve](https://media.wired.com/photos/69cfd1245a6a0e1931a72ffe/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/5-mysteries-that-the-artemis-missions-to-the-moon-could-finally-solve/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [5 Mysteries That the Artemis Missions to the Moon Could Finally Solve](https://www.wired.com/story/5-mysteries-that-the-artemis-missions-to-the-moon-could-finally-solve/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) The moon is not just a barren rock orbiting the Earth. The Artemis missions could answer the great unknowns that the satellite holds. Jorge Garay [![Bremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface](https://media.wired.com/photos/69dd15810d4515fda63e6849/16:9/w_640%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/bremont-is-sending-a-watch-to-the-moon-surface/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) [Bremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface](https://www.wired.com/story/bremont-is-sending-a-watch-to-the-moon-surface/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b7a72498-461c-48a5-842b-c80c67dc890c_roberta-similarity1) Bremont’s Supernova Chronograph will be attached to the chassis of Astrolab’s FLIP rover, which will land on the moon later this year. 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In the century since Einstein predicted the existence of [black holes](https://www.wired.com/story/an-astronomer-explains-black-holes-at-5-levels-of-difficulty/) in his theory of gravity, astrophysicists have turned up overwhelming [evidence for the things](https://www.wired.com/tag/black-holes/). They’ve observed the push and pull of black holes on the orbits of nearby stars and planets. They’ve heard the vibrations, or gravitational waves, resonating from black holes colliding. But they’d never glimpsed a black hole face to face—until now. On Wednesday, astrophysicists announced they had captured the first-ever image of a black hole. The picture, taken over five days of observations in April 2017 using eight telescopes around the world by a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope, depicts luminous gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the center of M87, a galaxy 54 million light-years away. Past the bright lights, though, is the black hole’s telltale feature: its event horizon. The event horizon is the edge of the spacetime abyss, where gravity is so strong that no light can escape from it. “It’s the point of no return,” says Feryal Özel of the University of Arizona, who is a member of the EHT collaboration. In the image, it manifests itself as the “sudden absence of light,” she says. ### WIRED's Guide to How the Universe Works Your weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Previously, researchers had captured a blobby jet of light emerging from where the M87 black hole was predicted to be—but they couldn’t definitively see the black hole because their instruments were nowhere near as sharp as EHT’s. “It’s like going from a cheap smartphone camera to a high definition IMAX cinema,” says astrophysicist Andrew Strominger of Harvard University, who was not involved in the work. ![south pole telescope](https://media.wired.com/photos/5cadeea84af32a21e8b0efa4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/SouthPoleTelescopebytheUniversityofArizonaDanMarrone.jpg) The South Pole Telescope, one of eight telescopes used to capture the first black hole image.Dan Marrone/University of Arizona This black hole is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Still, it’s tiny from a vantage point on Earth, less than 50 microarcseconds wide in the sky, which makes it about as hard to see as a donut placed on the moon. It took eight different telescopes to image it. The telescopes collected observational data that was synced with the precision of a billionth of a second. To see the black hole’s boundary between light and dark, the astrophysicists captured radio waves—light 1.3 millimeters in wavelength, invisible to the human eye—emitted by the gas swirling around the black hole. The gas emits light of all different wavelengths, including visible light, but the researchers chose this particular wavelength because it can sail through entire galaxies and even Earth’s own atmosphere without being absorbed. But they still needed good weather at all eight of their telescope sites to see the black hole. Before switching on their telescopes, they had to monitor the moisture in the air, says Özel—too much humidity would ruin their images. To minimize the chance of rain, they built the telescopes in dry regions, including the South Pole and the Atacama Desert in Chile. M87's black hole is relatively close to Earth, as the light coming from it was only emitted 54 million years ago—so we’re seeing it at a more mature moment in its existence. “At this point in the age of the universe, black holes have calmed down,” says Özel. “They’re basically eating gas trickling in from nearby stars.” M87’s black hole does emit bright jets of gas, but it’s still pretty dim compared to younger black holes that are further away. These younger black holes accumulate larger amounts of matter, so their swirls of luminous gas shine brighter. Most Popular ![simulation of a black hole](https://media.wired.com/photos/5cadee53ee62091f97c4d891/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/blackhole_chi-kwanchan.gif) To capture and interpret the first black hole image, scientists first created millions of simulations like this one.Chi-Kwan Chan/University of Arizona It took two decades of work to capture the image. Part of that effort was designing, building, and hauling the hardware to various telescope sites. But they also had to anticipate what they might see by nailing down the physics of black holes as accurately as possible. Özel, who has been working on photographing a black hole since her graduate student days in 2000, says that they’ve created millions of simulations of black holes, each with different mass, spin speed, or orientation, among other things. These simulations helped inform how they designed their telescopes and where they pointed them. But they weren’t just after a pretty picture. In the zoo of astronomical objects, black holes are among the most extreme entities to exist. A black hole, as currently understood, packs an enormous amount of mass into a single point, making it—literally—an infinitely dense object. This density creates a huge gravitational pull into its center, which no one can peer inside. “They are the only objects in the universe that create a region of spacetime inaccessible to the rest of the universe,” says Özel. Because black holes are so extreme, researchers want to study their features to see if they are consistent with the rest of general relativity. “We all feel we have an intuitive sense of what space and time are. But Einstein told us that’s true only in situations like the ones we’re used to, where the gravitational field is very weak,” says Strominger. “When the gravitational field gets strong, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen.” Everything they’ve observed so far about M87—its mass and the size of its event horizon—is consistent with Einstein's theory. But future, more detailed observations could reveal unexpected features. Strominger wants to see more detailed images of a fast-spinning black hole like M87. According to theoretical calculations, if black holes spin fast enough, they form a [wormhole](https://www.wired.com/story/information-escape-wormholes/) in spacetime. Future black hole images could help confirm or refute these hypotheses. Strominger is anticipating the day when images are good enough to see a black hole with its associated wormhole. “This is really, really weird science fiction stuff, and we’re going to be seeing it,” he says. Most Popular This image is just the beginning, says Özel. They want to pivot their telescopes toward other black holes, to amass a whole scrapbook of black hole images. They also plan to take more, better-quality pictures of this black hole to understand it in more detail. Now that they’ve finally stared into the eyes of the beast, it’s time to watch how it behaves. More Great WIRED Stories - Why a new crop of electric SUV batteries [come up short](https://www.wired.com/story/audi-e-tron-epa-range-anxiety-batteries/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - Is it OK to [make your dog vegan](https://www.wired.com/story/is-it-ok-to-make-your-dog-vegan/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2)? - Coding is for everyone—as long as [you speak English](https://www.wired.com/story/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - Celebrating Tower Bridge, [London's engineering marvel](https://www.wired.com/story/london-tower-bridge-125th-anniversary-gallery/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) - The [body pullers](https://www.wired.com/story/body-pullers-syria/?BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2) of Raqqa, Syria - 👀 Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest [buying guides](https://www.wired.com/tag/buying-guides/?BottomRelatedStories) and [best deals](https://www.wired.com/tag/deals/?BottomRelatedStories) all year round - 📩 Want more? [Sign up for our daily newsletter](https://www.wired.com/newsletter/?name=daily&sourceCode=BottomStories) and never miss our latest and greatest stories

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