The Perplexing Physics of Imaging a Black Hole

It's a big day for astronomy (and all humans, really). The first image of a black hole has been released. It was created using the Event Horizon Telescope—a collaboration of radio telescopes around the world. This image shows the material around a super massive blackhole in the center of a galaxy some 55 million light-years away. Yes, there is a ton of cool physics here, involving the crazy gravitational things that happen in extreme cases like a black hole.