Session: Plenary Session

Keynote: Precision Timing and the Quest to Capture Images of a Black Hole

Dr. Michael Johnson, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian
Location: Beacon A/B

Explosive growth in digital technologies has created a radio interferometry renaissance, leading to breakthroughs including the first images of black holes with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). These images were produced using the technique of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), which requires precise synchronization among telescopes distributed globally. I will summarize the EHT results and will describe how new technologies for precision timing and high-speed downlink are now enabling extensions of the EHT to space. A space-enhanced EHT would produce the sharpest images in the history of astronomy, revealing the bright and narrow "photon ring" that is predicted to exist in images of black holes, produced from light that has orbited a black hole before escaping. I will describe this recent progress and the extraordinary opportunities for black hole research that will be enabled through advances in the coming decade of precision timing.

Dr. Michael Johnson is the Deputy Associate Director for Science at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian. He co-led the team that captured the first image of a black hole, and his awards include the 2024 New Horizons Breakthrough Prize in Physics. He is leading the Black Hole Explorer, a mission that will deliver the sharpest images in the history of astronomy.