No. 111/2020

25 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 111/2020 SPELLBOUND BY THE BLACK HOLE I t is not easy to meet Anton Zensus in autumn 2019. If you want to interview the astrophysicist, you first have to manage to make an appointment with him. Whether he is giving lectures, appearing before a fas- cinated lay audience or attending award ceremonies: Zensus is in demand. But then it works out, after all – at his own place of work, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, of which he is the director. On top of this, he heads a consortium of some 200 researchers from 60 institutes – the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration Council. Why is there such huge interest in this radio astronomer? Just six months ago, on 10 April 2019, the EHT team announced an extraordinary break- through: after decades of preparation, experts had man- aged to do what had been considered impossible: to cap- ture an image of a black hole. Known to millions of cinemagoers in its fictitious form from the space epic, Interstellar, the mysterious object can now effectively be viewed in natura. The image was presented to the public around the world at simul- taneous press conferences, one of which was in Brussels in the presence of the EU’s Commissioner for Science, Carlos Moedas. The Portuguese Commissioner’s words were indicative of the significance of the event. He spoke of “a huge breakthrough for humanity.” To date, a recording of the press conference has been viewed more than three million times online. And the image of the black hole triggered a flood of headlines in the world › Without a world-spanning network, this sensation would never have been possible: radio astronomers managed to take the first picture of a black hole in space. To do so, scientists from 20 countries pooled their expertise. Leader of the alliance: Humboldt Research Award Winner, Anton Zensus, from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. Text  THORSTEN DAMBECK  Photos  SILVIA STEINBACH