Looking into Black Holes

There are places in the universe where light itself cannot escape. Where time has stood completely still for millions — sometimes billions — of years. Where the very fabric of space and time collapses into something we can barely describe, let alone comprehend.

We call them black holes. But what does that actually mean?

In this talk, Iván Martí-Vidal — one of the scientists behind the first-ever photograph of a black hole — takes us into the deepest, strangest corners of the cosmos. From the theoretical physics of curved spacetime to the painstaking observational work that finally let humanity see what was never supposed to be seeable.

What we'll cover

• What a black hole actually is — not the sci-fi cliché, but a genuine cavity in the fabric of space and time, where the laws of physics reach their breaking point
• The event horizon: the invisible boundary from which nothing returns, and what it means for time itself to freeze
• The two faces of black holes — the supermassive giants lurking at the hearts of galaxies, and the remnants of stars that died in catastrophic explosions
• How the Event Horizon Telescope — a planet-sized radio telescope — captured the first image of a black hole in 2019, and the role Iván played in making it possible
• What we've learned from recent observations, and what mysteries still refuse to give themselves up

The Speaker: 
 

Ivan Marti-Vidal

Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics — Universitat de València / Observatori Astronòmic de la UV

Iván Martí-Vidal is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Valencia and Head of Instrumentation at its Astronomical Observatory. He has worked at some of Europe's leading research institutions, including the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and the Onsala Space Observatory. In 2014, he joined the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration — the international project that made history in 2019 by releasing the first image of a black hole. His work was central to developing the calibration algorithms that made the image possible, and he coordinated the project's Polarimetry Group. His contributions have been recognised with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Einstein Medal, and the EHT Early-Career Award, among others.