These research organizations — the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory — worked together to build a new, ultra-sensitive camera for the telescope, called SPT-3G, which contains 16,000 superconducting detectors. Exploiting the technical capability and expertise of its Silicon Detector Facility, Fermilab led the assembly of the detector modules and their integration into the SPT-3G camera, which was designed by Bradford Benson of Fermilab and the University of Chicago.
On EHT, Fermilab scientists helped to design the EHT receiver interface and installation on the SPT and have supported EHT observations through their leading roles on SPT-3G survey and SPT telescope operations. Fermilab’s work on the South Pole Telescope is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
Read more in the press release here.
This is the first image ever taken of a black hole. This black hole resides at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. Image: Event Horizon Telescope.