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Canadian scientist part of global team unveiling first image of a black hole

Avery Broderick says the image offers support for Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity
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This image released Wednesday, April 10, 2019, by Event Horizon Telescope shows a black hole. Scientists revealed the first image ever made of a black hole after assembling data gathered by a network of radio telescopes around the world. (Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration/Maunakea Observatories via AP)

An Ontario scientist that was part of a global team unveiling the world’s first captured image of a black hole says the picture helps make science fiction into science fact.

Avery Broderick of the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics says the image also offers further support for Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

READ MORE: VIDEO: Scientists reveal first image ever made of black hole

Broderick was one of 200 global researchers taking part in the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, a group of scientists around the world bent on proving the existence of black holes and documenting what they look like — despite the fact that the cosmic entities do not reflect any light.

They created the image of a black hole by compiling data from eight earth-based telescopes positioned around the world.

The photo was unveiled in Washington D.C. this morning, with scientists saying the result allowed them to “see the unseeable.”

Broderick says a better understanding of black holes will help scientists to bridge the knowledge gap between classical and quantum physics.

The Canadian Press

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