Erandi Chavez

Radio telescopes scattered across the globe pick up waves from distant black holes. But two telescopes placed almost side by side see only a blurry blob — fine details are beyond them. Usually, such pairs are considered useless and discarded. But that's a mistake: even a blurry blob holds clues.

A black hole is not a frozen void, but a living magnetic engine. Its 'heart'—the accretion disk, pulsates: inhale, matter spirals into the funnel, exhale — magnetic reconnection tears the field lines, and plasma shoots away from the horizon.

In April 2021, the antennas of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)—a global network of millimeter-wave radio telescopes — zeroed in on a tiny spot in the constellation Virgo.