Yes, of course it was a she. MIT graduate Katie Bouman had three years ago worked on an algorithm that made it possible for us to see the black hole. An image of what is called the ‘Super Massive Black Hole’ was released yesterday and had the people of earth, awe struck at the great big vastness of the universe, time, light and all else one cannot quite fathom. But the person who had somewhat less trouble fathoming all of it was Katie Bouman. Her Facebook post talking about her ‘disbelief’ was more about the her joy that her image was being reconstructed to eventually be shared with the world...
Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructedKatie Bouman, Scientist
“3 years ago MIT grad student Katie Bouman led the creation of a new algorithm to produce the first-ever image of a black hole. Today, that image was released.”MIT Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence Laboritory
Her algorithm is said to have enabled a network of telescopes to work together to produce the image that we now see.
“ Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun” said a post by Event Horizon Telescope the creator of the technology that made this imaging possible.
Celebrating women in science ‘’Twitterverse'’ was quick to circulate news of her achievements saying that due credit should be given to women who perform these feats in science. It was also a great chance to remember other noted women scientists like Margaret Hamilton whose coding was key to our advancement in space exploration.
With inputs from News 18
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