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0:01NARRATOR: An image
of a black hole
0:03will provide a new way to
test Einstein's most extreme
0:06theoretical predictions.
0:08 Einstein's equations
show us that if you
0:11spend an hour or two at
the edge of a black hole
0:13and then come back to
Earth, for instance,
0:16Earth might have aged 10,000 or
a million or a billion years.
0:20So when we are observing the
event horizon of a black hole,
0:23we are observing what
really can be characterized
0:28NARRATOR: Yet despite
Einstein's equations,
0:31even he didn't think that
black holes could exist.
0:34He didn't believe there was
a way they could ever form.
0:38JANNA LEVIN: That's a sensible
objection that Einstein had.
0:40I mean, after all, it'd be
very, very, very hard to do,
0:43to crush all the mass
of something to a point.
0:47Einstein naturally
and reasonably assumed
0:50that matter just
wouldn't allow itself
0:52to be compacted that much.
0:57NARRATOR: But evidence of a
mechanism has been growing.
1:03Scientists now
believe a black hole
1:06is the corpse of a giant
star that's gone supernova.
1:14Deep inside the debris,
the surviving core
1:17collapses to an
infinitely small point.
1:21This is called the singularity.
1:25Its intense gravity
warps space and time
1:27so severely that nothing
can escape, forming
1:32the black hole's event horizon.
1:35 It's possible that
black holes are ultimately
1:37a figment of the
mathematical equations
1:40that Einstein gave us.
1:42But how better to begin
to push this understanding
1:45than to look and see
what's actually out there?
1:47And that's the promise of
the Event Horizon Telescope.
1:53NARRATOR: A picture will
test one of the most
1:54treasured theories in
science, Einstein's
1:59theory of general relativity.
2:02His theory says that mass curves
the fabric of space and time,
2:07creating an effect
that we call gravity.
2:11SCOTT HUGHES: Einstein's
theory of relativistic gravity,
2:14that is what lays
the foundations that
2:16set all of our understanding.
2:19Step one is just, did
Einstein get it right?
2:22Is there some detail
that's been overlooked?
2:25NARRATOR: For 100
years, Einstein's theory
2:28has passed every test,
but nobody has ever seen
2:31its most extreme prediction.
2:34BRIAN GREENE: How
wonderful would it
2:35be if the event
horizon telescope
2:38shows us that in
extreme realms, Einstein
2:42is not completely right?
2:44It will be one of the
most thrilling discoveries
2:46of our age, as we will then
leapfrog forward in our grasp
2:51of how the universe works.
2:53NARRATOR: A challenge to
Einstein's theory and a new era
2:57of astronomy rests on
the success of the Event
3:00Horizon Telescope team.
