EHT Collaboration Sets Sights on 2026 Campaign to Film the Activity of Black Hole M87*

The international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has officially announced a major observation campaign scheduled for March and April 2026. This ambitious mission aims to produce the first-ever video recording of the activity surrounding the supermassive black hole M87*, which resides at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy. Scientists intend to document the shifting dynamics of the rotating accretion disk that defines the boundary of the object's event horizon, providing a unprecedented look at one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena.

With a mass estimated at approximately six billion times that of our Sun, M87* is a celestial titan with a spatial footprint comparable to the entire Solar System. Professor Sera Markoff, a founding member of the EHT consortium and the newly appointed Plumian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, noted that this video campaign is expected to accelerate scientific understanding in the field by an order of magnitude. The research team is particularly focused on obtaining precise measurements of the black hole's rotation speed and the specific mechanisms that trigger the powerful relativistic jets erupting from its immediate vicinity.

This upcoming project represents the next significant milestone for the EHT following its landmark 2019 achievement, which provided the world with the first static image of a black hole's shadow. The EHT has since evolved into a sophisticated global network of 12 radio telescopes stretching from the frozen reaches of Antarctica to Spain and South Korea. By leveraging these enhanced capabilities, the array now captures images of M87* every three days, a frequency made possible by the integration of new observation sites since 2019. This cadence is ideal for M87*, as its rotation is sufficiently slow to be tracked effectively at this interval.

Successfully filming the accretion disk's dynamics and the formation of its jets will offer vital empirical data to refine existing theoretical models of black hole physics. By measuring the azimuthal movement of luminous regions within the disk, researchers can place direct constraints on the black hole's spin and the magnetohydrodynamic processes that drive jet formation. These observations are a crucial aspect of modern astrophysics, as they connect physics at the event horizon scale with the feedback processes that influence the evolution of entire galaxies.

Despite the technological advancements, the logistical hurdles of the project remain immense, reflecting the truly global scale of the endeavor. The staggering volumes of data generated by the telescopes cannot be transmitted via the internet; instead, physical hard drives must be transported from remote locations like the South Pole to processing centers in Germany and the United States. Data collected at the South Pole is often held in storage until flights resume during the Antarctic summer, which naturally delays final analysis. For instance, the 2017 data set for M87* required 3.5 petabytes of storage and took two years of processing before the first image could be released.

While M87* is the primary target for video due to its relatively slow evolution over several days, the EHT has also focused on Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way. However, Sgr A* changes too rapidly for the current EHT array to capture a long-exposure film. The 2026 campaign thus represents a pivotal transition in the field, moving from static astronomical snapshots to the dynamic exploration of extreme astrophysical phenomena that play a vital role in the ecosystem of the universe.