Astronomers to announce 'groundbreaking result' in black hole project

Astronomers who have been using a global networkof telescopes to research black holes will present "a groundbreakingresult" on Wednesday that could transform the understanding of themysterious objects.  The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project has been working for yearsto photograph the edge of a black hole for the first time.The collaborative effort, involving scientists from all over theworld, last week scheduled multiple simultaneous press conferences toannounce its first results.The US National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the organizationssponsoring the EHT, said the results could transform theunderstanding of black holes, gravity and even the universe.Astronomers believe black holes, very dense objects with agravitational field so strong that nothing that approaches its edgescan escape, exist in nearly every galaxy.As everything around a black hole, including light, gets pulled intothe object's gravitational force, they can't be observed directly.However, it is possible to study them by detecting their effect onother matter nearby, which is what the EHT is attempting to achieve.EHT astronomers are linking telescopes to record interference aroundtwo supermassive black holes in the middle of the Milky Way. Theproject aims to put into focus the event horizon of the two objects,creating an image of the boundary of the black holes.Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of the objects in histheory of relativity.