Astronomers receive ERC Synergy Grant to make colour movies of black holes and build new telescope in Africa

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Synergy Grant, named “BlackHolistic”, of 14 million Euro to a team of Dutch, British, Finnish, and Namibian astronomers to make colour movies of black holes. The team, among whom Professor Sera Markoff of the University of Amsterdam, will build the first ever African millimetre-wave radio telescope in Namibia to achieve their goal. The telescope will take part in the global Event Horizon Telescope network that became famous for making the first image of a black hole. The new grant will help to transform this network from making still images towards making movies and to understand black holes across the entire Universe.