During the press conference held yesterday at SCO at the same time as at five other locations around the planet, the astronomers in charge of revealing the image of the colossal black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy stressed that without ALMA these results would not have been possible.
The secret
The revelation of this image was full of emotion, since very few people knew the result of these observations, which for ALMA constitute a different work from what is done regularly.
“I haven’t seen the data,” said John Carpenter, Observatory Scientist, minutes before entering the Licancabur Hall. “These are very cool results. It’s really very, very, very impressive to see. I figured it was something like this, but seeing it confirms our work and it’s very exciting.”
“I’m happy to see this image because it’s about work we did five years ago. I’ve been working on this project for twelve years and it’s incredible that despite all the time that has passed, you get excited again,” said Alejandro Saenz, leader of the Equipment Correlator and Transmission.
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David Rebolledo, ALMA Science Operations Astronomer, commented “I did not participate in this observation, but as part of the EHT consortium I understand the effort behind this image. It involves a lot of coordination and a lot of pressure over long days. Seeing what is generated by this effort allows us to understand a little more about the theory of relativity and to move forward. There is still a lot to learn. The future is bright.”
“These are exciting results and ALMA’s involvement in achieving this outstanding image of Sag A* was central. Everyone at ALMA played a role. Certainly, there are people directly involved in the observations, but everyone has a role in making the telescope work, making sure people get to the observatory, making sure we have all the tools and conditions to make ALMA work. I am very grateful to all our staff and those who are part of our partner institutions, NRAO, NAOJ and ESO, for helping us to operate such a fantastic telescope in a really challenging place and for making it possible for us to contribute in such a significant way to reveal these scientific observations carried out by EHT.
Thank you all!”
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