Seeing a Black Hole with a Planet-Sized Telescope | STELLAR

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It took about a century for black holes to go from impossible, to theoretical, to real. And it was just this year, in 2019, when we finally saw the first picture of a black hole! But how to you take a photo of something so massively dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull? You use a telescope the size of the Earth!

This video is a bit different from most It's Okay To Be Smart videos. It's part of a new PBS miniseries called STELLAR, done in collaboration with Matt O’Dowd from PBS Space Time and Dianna Cowern from Physics Girl. Over six episodes we travel to telescopes, go inside space research centers, and chat with amazing scientists to bring you the most exciting stories about space. Next up is Matt's episode where he tells you how we discovered galaxies outside of our own. And if you missed it, check out:

**Matt O’Dowd exploring the oldest quasar ever seen at the Gemini Telescope:

**Physics Girl visits LIGO to learn about gravitational waves:

You'll be able to see future episodes on the Physics Girl, Space Time and It’s Okay to be Smart YouTube channels, as well as the PBS Digital Studios Facebook page.

Stellar is a part of the PBS Summer of Space. They'll be lots of awesome space related content all summer long on PBS. See what's happening at

#SummerOfSpacePBS #astrophysics #space

Hosted by Joe Hanson
Written by: Sophia Chen, Joe Hanson, Andrew Kornhaber, Eric Brown
Directed by: Eric Brown and Andrew Kornhaber
Producer: Randa Eid
Director of Photography: Eric Brouse
Sound: Tobi Nova
Production Assistant: Anna Bosketti
Editing: Pavel Ezrohi
Graphics: Murilo Lopes
Assistant Editing: Daniel Sircar
Produced By: Kornhaber Brown

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