The historic unveiling of the first ever photo of a real black hole could not have happened without the work of a female grad student.
Computer scientist Katie Bouman, 29, led the development of an algorithm which helped create the ground-breaking image, while she was still studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three years ago.
The algorithm was needed to combine data from the eight radio telescopes - known under the collective name Event Horizon Telescope - and turn them into a clear image.
MIT announced the development of the algorithm, which Dr Bouman named, CHIRP (Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors) in 2016, saying the project sought to “turn the entire planet into a large radio telescope dish”.
Dr Bouman delivered a TED talk at the time called ‘How to take a picture of a black hole’.
During the clip, which now has over two million views, she explained: “Getting this first picture will come down to an international team of scientists, an Earth-sized telescope and an algorithm that puts together the final picture."
The 29-year-old, who is now a postdoctoral fellow of the Event Horizon Telescope, responded to Wednesday's iconic images by posting a picture of her reaction on Facebook.
Refusing to accept too much credit, Dr Bouman told CNN: “No one of us could've done it alone. It came together because of lots of different people from many backgrounds.
“We’re a melting pot of astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and engineers, and that’s what it took to achieve something once thought impossible,” she added.
Dr Boulter will soon start a new role in Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (CMS).
Yisong Yue, a professor in Machine Learning at the Institute tweeted yesterday: “Very proud of Katie, and delighted to have her join as Caltech's newest faculty.
