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International array captures the unseeable with a 'virtual telescope'

The Event Horizon Telescope pulled off one of astrophysicists' longtime dreams by documenting a supermassive black hole.

The southern lights — aurora australis — over the South Pole Telescope
The southern lights — aurora australis — over the South Pole Telescope (AN/Joshua Montgomery)

In a sensational feat for science and international collaboration, a team of more than 200 researchers using a "virtual telescope" of observatories around the world for the first time managed to see and photograph what was previously unseeable: a supermassive black hole.

The Event Horizon Telescope — an international organization linking eight major radio observatories on four continents into one virtual, Earth-sized telescope with previously unavailable resolution and sensitivity— pulled off one of astrophysicists' longtime dreams.

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