Data handling will require an Antarctic summer to physically ship drives to processing centers in Germany and the United States, delaying the public release of the moving image.

Building on the 2019 EHT achievement—the first image of a black hole’s shadow—the 2026 movie would add sequential frames to extend this work.

Understanding spin and jet formation could help distinguish growth through accretion versus mergers and explain how jets influence star formation and galactic evolution.

The supermassive black hole in M87 weighs about 6 billion solar masses and spans a region comparable in size to the solar system, enabling a sequence of images to be stitched into a movie as Earth’s rotation offers different viewpoints.

Sera Markoff, newly appointed Plumian professor at Cambridge University, stresses the broader significance of black holes for cosmic evolution and seeks to broaden diversity in science through her role.

The project aims to reveal how fast the central black hole is spinning and how jets are launched, shedding light on black hole growth and the evolution of their host galaxies.

Astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope plan to produce a moving image of the M87 black hole during March and April using a global network of 12 radio telescopes.

The project underscores the dual view of black holes as extreme phenomena and as crucial drivers of galaxy formation and evolution.