The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an international project to create a very large telescope with a diameter of at least 10,000 kilometers. The EHT will be able to image black holes and other astronomical objects with unprecedented resolution.
The project was first proposed in 2006 by Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The idea was to use a network of radio telescopes around the world to act as a single instrument, using a technique called interferometry. This would allow the EHT to achieve resolutions of milliarcseconds, which is about 1000 times better than what is currently possible with existing telescopes.
Since its inception, the EHT has grown rapidly, and now includes over 60 institutions from 20 countries. The telescope has already taken its first test observations, and is expected to begin regular observations in early 2017. When fully operational, the EHT will be able to image black holes at the center of galaxies with stunning detail. It will also be able to study how matter behaves near the event horizon of a black hole, and probe the nature of gravity in extreme conditions.
The Event Horizon Telescope is an exciting project that promises to revolutionize our understanding of black holes and other astronomical objects.