Events Calendar

USC Probability Statistics Seminar Talk of General Interest

Speaker: Katherine Bouman , Caltech

Talk Title: Capturing the First Image of a Black Hole and Designing the Future of Black Hole Imaging

Abstract: The Math Department is having a talk on Friday, September 11 at 330PM PST and invites the CS community to attend.

This talk will present the methods and procedures used to produce the first image of a black hole from the Event Horizon Telescope, as well as discuss future developments for black hole imaging. It had been theorized for decades that a black hole would leave a "shadow" on a background of hot gas. Taking a picture of this black hole shadow would help to address a number of important scientific questions, both on the nature of black holes and the validity of general relativity. Unfortunately, due to its small size, traditional imaging approaches require an Earth-sized radio telescope. In this talk, I discuss techniques the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has developed to photograph a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of telescopes scattered across the globe. Imaging a black hole's structure with this computational telescope required us to reconstruct images from sparse measurements, heavily corrupted by atmospheric error. The talk will also discuss future developments, including new imaging techniques and how we are developing machine learning methods to help design future telescope arrays.

Meeting ID: 971 9693 8934
Passcode: 542837


Host: Steve Heilman

More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97196938934?pwd=ODlnbVgwL1pzeDROQ0ovK3d2Nm9UQT09

Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97196938934?pwd=ODlnbVgwL1pzeDROQ0ovK3d2Nm9UQT09

Location: Online - Zoom

WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97196938934?pwd=ODlnbVgwL1pzeDROQ0ovK3d2Nm9UQT09

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Ryan Rozan

Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97196938934?pwd=ODlnbVgwL1pzeDROQ0ovK3d2Nm9UQT09