Cathy Bowman’s algorithm, or how the MIT graduate helped take the first-ever photograph of a black hole.

The story of the girl, who became an important part of the historical event, made her a heroine according to social networks.

Kathy Bowman, leader of the black hole photo algorithm development team

Katie Bowman

On April 10, astrophysicists presented the first-ever image of a black hole. An international team of more than 200 scientists worked on the photo for several years. And one of the most important members of the team was Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old who developed an algorithm to visualize data from telescopes around the world that tracked the black hole.

The first ever photograph of a black hole

The first ever photograph of a black hole.

Within hours, Bowman became the heroine of social media users and the "face" of the historic event. And scientists admit that without it, the first photo of a black hole might not have turned out.

The black hole observing project called Event Horizon Telescope was launched in 2012. Astrophysicists wanted to collect data on the black hole at the center of galaxy M87 in the constellation Virgo, but to do so they would have needed a telescope that could not support its own weight.

So scientists used eight different telescopes in Hawaii, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Chile and the South Pole. But the project participants did not know how to synchronize the data and turn it into a single snapshot. That's where Bowman helped them.

In 2016, the girl was in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - she studied computer science and artificial intelligence. That same year, Bowman began developing the first version of an algorithm that would turn data from different telescopes into a single image, as if taken from one "big" telescope the size of the Earth.

Bowman talks about his work at the TED conference (Russian subtitles available)

In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope project collected millions of gigabytes of data about a black hole in galaxy M87. There was so much data that it was sent to MIT on several hundred hard drives - it was impossible to transmit everything over the Internet. For the next two years, Bowman led the team that processed all the information using her algorithm and several others.

Even this amount of data the girl called "scarce, noisy and limited," so the team had to check everything and select the "most likely" variants of what a black hole could look like. The work was complicated by the fact that no one knew what black holes actually looked like - the team worked almost blindly.

In June 2018, specialists received the first version of the black hole's image, collected from different telescopes. On April 10, a photo of a satisfied Bowman seeing the result of her work went viral.

Kathy Bowman sees reconstructed photo of a black hole for the first time

Kathy Bowman sees reconstructed photo of a black hole for the first time

Bowman is only part of the huge group of people who worked on the first photo of the black hole. But the story of a girl who, while not an astrophysicist, contributed to a historical event made her a social media hero. She has been compared to American scientist Margaret Hamilton, who led the development of software for the Apollo space program.

Space Heroes - Margaret Hamilton, 1969 and Katie Bowman, 2019
1969: Margaret Hamilton with the code that led us to the moon. 2019: Katie Bowman with the data that led us to the black hole

MIT alumna Katie Bowman led the creation of the first black hole photo algorithm
Three years ago, MIT graduate Katie Bowman led the creation of the algorithm that took the first-ever photo of a black hole

Bowman herself, who has already had to give several interviews during the day, does not distinguish herself from the rest of the team of scientists and astrophysicists. In the fall of 2019, the next phase of her life begins - the girl was invited to teach at the California Institute of Technology.

In 2016, the girl was in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - she studied computer science and artificial intelligence. That same year, Bowman began developing the first version of an algorithm that would turn data from different telescopes into a single image, as if taken from one "big" telescope the size of the Earth.

None of us could have done it alone. It was made possible by a lot of different people with their own backstories. I would like to encourage everyone to continue to push the boundaries of science. Even if at first it may not seem as mysterious as a black hole.
Katie Bowman, author of the algorithm.

According to tjournal.ru

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