Spotlighting a Black Hole - What did it take to create the largest outreach campaign for an astronomical result? - European Southern Observatory
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journal Issue 26 | October 2019 Communicating Astronomy with the Public Spotlighting a Black Hole What did it take to create the largest outreach campaign for an astronomical result? Tactile Subaru A project to make telescope technology accessible Naming ExoWorlds Update on the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaign www.capjournal.org
As part of the 100th anniversary commemorations, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is organising the IAU100
News
News
NameExoWorlds global competition to allow any country in the world to give a popular name to a selected exoplanet and its
host star. The final results of the competion will be announced in Decmeber 2019. Credit: IAU/L. Calçada.
Editorial
Welcome to the 26th edition of the CAPjournal! To start off, the first
part of 2019 brought in a radical new era in astronomy with the first
ever image showing a shadow of a black hole. For CAPjournal #26,
part of the team who collaborated on the promotion of this image
hs written a piece to show what it took to produce one of the largest
astronomy outreach campaigns to date.
We also highlight two other large outreach campaigns in this
edition. The first is a peer-reviewed article about the 2016 solar eclipse
in Indonesia from the founder of the astronomy website lagiselatan,
Avivah Yamani. Next, an update on NameExoWorlds, the largest
IAU100 campaign, as we wait for the announcement of new names
for the ExoWorlds in December.
Additionally, this issue touches on opportunities for more inclusive
astronomy. We bring you a peer-reviewed article about outreach for
inclusion by Dr. Kumiko Usuda-Sato and the speech “Diversity Across
Astronomy Can Further Our Research” delivered by award-winning
astronomy communicator Dr. Amelia Ortiz-Gil at the IAU100 Flagship
event in Brussels earlier this year.
Now, looking toward the future, we at CAPjournal will be building
upon our know-how and best practices of ten years of existence
and implementing new changes to policies and practices in order to
better serve you in our community and one of the best planets in the
universe, Earth:
Diverse Editorial Board
The astronomy outreach and education community is diverse,
working in many areas of life and culture everywhere in the world.
In order to mirror this diversity of you, the astronomy communica-
tion practitioners, we will identify and invite people with a variety of Contents
outreach, education, and communication expertise from across the
globe to form a new, dynamic Editorial Board. Explained in 60 Seconds: The First Ever Image of a
Black Hole 4
Greener Policies
We who publish the CAPjournal at the IAU Office of Astronomy IAU100 NameExoWorlds: A Call to Promote Global
Outreach are committed to reducing our ecological impact. Twice
Citizenship 5
a year we publish more than 6000 copies and ship to nearly 5000
addresses worldwide—a small burden on the environment, but a
burden nonetheless. Beginning with this edition we will be reducing Diversity Across Astronomy Can Further Our
our printed edition, checking in with our subscribers and facilitate Research 7
better digital access. We will continue to make the CAPjournal
accessible to everyone, but we hope you will join us as we transition An Unprecedented Global Communications
into other ways that reduce our carbon footprint even more. Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black
Hole Image 11
CAPjournal is reaffirming its entrance into the next
decade and will continue to address the needs of the larger
community into the 2020s and beyond. Stay tuned as we move for- Touch the Universe: Developing and Disseminating
ward together. Tactile Telescope Models Created with a 3D Printer 24
Clear skies and great observations, Strategising the New Media Role for Engaging the
Public Case Study: Total Solar Eclipse 31
Lina Canas
Editor-in-Chief of CAPjournal
Izumi Hansen
Managing Editor of CAPjournal
News
Announcement
Opinion
Cover: The first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole in Best practice
the centre of Messier 87 was captured by a global, decades long cam-
paign by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration. Credit: EHT Research & Applications
Collaboration
Explained in 60 Seconds: The First Ever Image of a Black
Column
Hole
Kazuhiro Hada
National Astronomical Observatory of
Japan
kazuhiro.hada@nao.ac.jp
Earlier this year the world was hit that a massive black hole exists at the massive black hole, an angular resolu-
with one of the biggest astronomical center of almost every galaxy. tion at least 1000 times better than the
breakthroughs this decade: the first Hubble Space Telescope was required to
image of a black hole. Even to astron- Although a black hole itself does not spatially resolve its shadow.
omers, black holes are one of the most shine, the accreting matter surround-
mysterious objects in the Universe. ing the black hole becomes so hot that This imaging feat required astronomers
About a century ago, the existence it emits intense radiation. As a result, the from around the world to assemble a
of a black hole was predicted from black hole is expected to be pictured global network of radio telescopes, called
Einstein’s general theory of relativity. as a dark “shadow” surrounded by the the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The
Its strong gravity warps the surrounding bright ring of emissions. However, resulting Earth-sized diameter radio
spacetime and anything nearby, even the angular extent of the shadow is so telescope achieved a super-sharp
light, can be absorbed into the black tiny on the sky that no direct picture of angular resolution to capture the image of
hole. Astronomers now widely theorise the black hole shadow had ever been the black hole. Initial observations began
obtained. Even for the nearest super- in April 2017, when the EHT observed
the core of M87, a supergiant elliptical
galaxy located at 55 million light-years
from the Earth.
Following careful data calibration and
analysis lasting two years, the team
released the first EHT image of M87*,
the center of galaxy Messier 87, in April
2019 (Figure 1). The image reveals
a bright circular ring surrounding a
dark central area. The obser ved
feature is in beautiful agreement the
prediction from Einstein’s theory as well
as recent state-of-the-art supercomputer
simulations. Furthermore, from the
observed diameter of the ring, the mass
of the central black hole was determined
to be 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.
The detection of the dark shadow is the
first-ever visual evidence for a black hole
and shows the extreme real-life distor-
tion of spacetime just near the event
horizon. This image opens a new win-
dow for black hole physics and astron-
omy. The EHT network is still rapidly
evolving by adding more stations and
enhancing sensitivity. Further EHT
observations of M87* and other nearby
supermassive black holes will yield
higher quality images and the possibil-
ity of movies, which will tell us in even
greater detail about the physics of black
holes and gas dynamics.
Figure 1. The first image of the shadow of a black hole, located at the centre of galaxy M87. Credit: EHT
Collaboration
4 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
Announcement
IAU100 NameExoWorlds: A Call to Promote Global
Citizenship
Eduardo Monfardini Penteado Bethany Downer
downer@strw.leidenuniv.nl
IAU100 NameExoWorlds IAU100 Secretariat
nameexoworlds@oao.iau.org downer@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Jorge Rivero González
IAU100 Coordinator
Bethany Downer
rivero@strw.leidenuniv.nl
IAU100 Secretariat
IAU100 NameExoWorlds is a global project designed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in celebration of the
organisation’s first hundredth anniversary in 2019. People from all over the world are invited to suggest names for exoworlds
in a global effort to bring astronomy closer to the public and to stimulate a feeling of global citizenship.
Introduction included stargazing for people who are organising the IAU100 NameExoWorlds
elderly or refugees, dark skies celebra- global initiative2 (Figure 2). Typically astro-
The 100th anniversary of the International tions, and parties for the 50th anniver- nomical names are chosen by members
Astronomical Union (IAU)1 is an impor- sary of the moon landing. of specific groups within the IAU3. But the
tant milestone being enthusiastically NameExoWorlds project, based on a pre-
celebrated through thousands of local, For the anniversary, the IAU, through vious edition held in 2015, invites coun-
regional and global activities taking the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Steering tries to develop their own national contest
place worldwide. These events have Committee and national committees, is to select a name for an assigned system
Figure 1. An artist’s impression of the Proxima b planet of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019 5
IAU100 NameExoWorlds: A Call to Promote Global Citizenship
composed of one exoplanet and its host National Outreach Coordinators (NOC), to answer these mysteries firsthand—we
star (Figure 1), allowing the members of under the umbrella of the IAU Office hope that people will find the value in pre-
the public to engage with the planetary for Astronomy Outreach (IAU OAO). serving Earth and think of themselves as
naming process. This way the cho- Countries without NOCs also had the citizens of our one, isolated planet.
sen names will represent well-known chance to create their own national
characteristics of each participat- committees. All United Nations (UN) The chosen popular names that meet the
ing country, increasing the interest for Member States, plus UN Observer IAU criteria will be officially recognised
astronomy within the country and States, and all dependent territories were by the IAU, and be used in conjunction
providing the opportunity to each state welcomed to participate in an inclusive with the scientific designations. Those
to immortalize its own culture in the sky. effort to engage the whole world in this who suggested the selected names will
special initiative. be recognized for their contribution.
What Are Exoworlds? Each national committee has been The IAU approved names from all
collecting names from the public, and countries’ final submissions will be
The term “exoworlds” refers to, in the most committees, as of October 2019, released all at once in December 2019.
context of this project, the systems will then shortlist potential names. Some
composed of one exoplanet and committees will put these names up for
their host star. Each participating a national public vote while others will Notes
country was assigned one system that is do the vote themselves. These votes will
known to consist of one gas giant planet take place between October 2019 and 1 https://www.iau-100.org/
orbiting a single star, so all participat- November 2019. If the chosen names 2 http://www.nameexoworlds.iau.org/
ing countries have the opportunity to are in agreement with all IAU naming 3 https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/
name similar celestial objects. When rules and approved by the IAU, they will
possible, the assigned systems are be accepted as official names of those
somehow linked to the countries by the stars and planets.
facilities or scientists involved in the
discovery of the exoplanet. Additionally,
all assigned stars can be observed with Results Thus Far
a small telescope from the latitude of the
capital of each country. To date, about 100 countries are
par ticipating in the project by
organizing national contests, proving
How Does the Project Work? that the public interest in astronomy is
substantial. As a global and multicultural
The core idea of the project is to engage project in its nature, we expect millions of
as many people as possible in a global people around the world to be engaged
effort to name these exoworlds through in the project by the end of the initiative.
national public contests. National Countries worldwide have embraced
committees have been created in this initiative as a common goal: to unite
each participating country to be in global citizenship on our planet, one
responsible for developing the world among many. By feeling a connec-
respective naming projects at the tion to other planets—-developing an
national level. Most of the national interest in their unanswered mysteries
committees were formed by the local and understanding that we won’t be able
Biographies
Eduardo Monfardini Penteado is the IAU100
NameExoWorlds coordinator based in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
Jorge Rivero González is the IAU 100
Coordinator based in Leiden University, the
Netherlands.
B e t h a ny D o w n e r i s t h e I AU10 0
Communications Editor based in Leiden
University, the Netherlands.
Figure 2. Logo for the IAU100 NameExoWorlds initiative. Courtesy of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds initiative
6 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
The Use of Picture Postcards in Disseminating
Opinion
Diversity Across Astronomy Can Further Our Research
Astronomy
Amelia Ortiz-Gil Keywords
Astronomy Observatory of Valencia, Spain Diversity, inclusion, research
amelia.ortiz@uv.es
Astronomer Amelia Ortiz-Gil delivered a speech on the impact of inclusion and diversity in astronomy at the IAU100
Flagship event in Brussels, Belgium on April 12, 2019. The following opinion piece is adapted from her speech.
Let me start with a small quiz: What do and excel—in science. But how many People can feel so discouraged by these
these people have in common? others have not been as lucky? types of obstacles that they don’t even
Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, John try. And this barrier is made even worse
Goodricke, Thomas Edison, Albert There is an unknown but certainly not if they belong to a racial or cultural
Einstein and Stephen Hawking. negligible number of talented individuals minority or an underserved social group
that may think they are not apt for science (Hamrick, 2019).
They are famous. They were all because they have a disability. Often this
scientists—all male and white, by the idea gets reinforced when they find that But how many people with disabilities are
way. And, most interestingly, they all the required knowledge and tools are out there? Estimates of the proportion of the
experienced some kind of disabil- of their reach because these tools are population with one or more disabilities
ity, either physical or cognitive. Da closed behind some barriers. But in most are very hard to make because they vary
Vinci probably was dyslexic. Newton cases these barriers are just the product depending on the definition of the term
suffered from stuttering and epilepsy, of arbitrary decisions that are not inher- “disability.” According to a 2016 report
and probably from some form of autism, ent to the knowledge itself. published in the USA, about 11% of
too. Goodricke was deaf. Edison was the working-age population reported
almost completely deaf and had a Take, for example, a graph. Below some type of disability. A 2019 report
learning disability. Albert Einstein also are two versions of the same graph stated that 19.5% of undergradu-
had a learning disability and possibly (Figure 1). The graph on the left uses only ate students reported a disability
dyslexia, while Hawking suffered from colour for coding, which is highly not (Hamrick, 2019). Another study, this
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). colour-blind friendly. The left one uses one in Europe, claims that up to 10%
both colour and shapes to distinguish of the population, or 2 to 3 pupils in
They are examples of individuals with different lines. This graph is not only every classroom, are affected by spe-
a disability that in some way or another more colour-blind friendly; it is also cific learning disabilities, such as
found the means and support to thrive— better for anyone who can see it. dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism
Years Years
Figure 1. Examples of graphs that are not colour-blind friendly (left) and colour-blind friendly (right) based on colour and shape. Credit: Penn State University
CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019 7
Accessibility and Diversity in Astonomy
(Butterworth, 2013). This study also influence on those areas, too. This
indicated that children are frequently exchange enriches all the sciences
affected by more than one learning involved.
disability.
Likewise, diversity in research teams is
The report Women, Minorities and highly enriching. Diversity in research
Persons with Disabilities in Science teams leads to diversity in research
and Engineering (Hamrick, 2019) from methods and diversity in the questions
the National Science Foundation that are being asked. People who are
provides statistical information about the different bring unique information and
participation of these three groups experiences, broadening the viewpoints
in science and engineering and leading to innovative solutions.
education and employment. In sum- Figure 2. Inspiring Stars logo. Credit: IAU/Inspiring
mary, it shows how women, persons with During the last decade or so, many Stars
disabilities, and minority groups are clearly sociological studies have found that
underrepresented in science and inclusive and diverse research groups
engineering. That is, their representa- and institutions are more success- the director of the institute, Prof. Bryan
tion in these fields is smaller than their ful than more homogeneous ones. Gaensler, claims that his experience
representation in the general population. Some of the reasons to support these shows that “more-diverse teams lead to
So, what can be done to avoid this loss of results are quite intuitive. For example, excellent research.”
talent and to improve the scientific scientific excellence depends on
excellence of research groups and creativit y, and diversit y fosters On the other hand, in recent years
institutions at the same time? c reati vit y bec ause of people’s many regulations have been passed
di f fe re nt bac kgrounds, abili t ie s at the national and international level
The answer is through diversity and (functional or other), culture, and so concerning accessibility and inclusion
inclusion. In the contex t of this on. These translate into different ways policies. I would like to mention one that
discussion, by diversity I mean a to address and resolve problems. The is relevant in our case. The International
variety of race, gender, functional search for diversity allows us to draw Council for Science (now the International
abilities, socio-economic background, candidates from the widest possible Science Council, or ISC), in its Statute
culture, religion, education and so on. pool of talent, embracing people that 5, presents the Principle of Universality
are diverse in background, functional of Science. It includes the need for
Inclusion is reached by creating a safe abilities, culture, race, etc. (Harvard, equitable access to data, information,
environment in which everybody can 2018). Not only do they provide new and other resources for research. And
speak out and act freely without fear of information because of their in advocating the free and responsible
embarrassment, where individuals feel different backgrounds, but interacting practice of science, the ISC promotes
like they belong and have value, and with people who are different forces equitable opportunities for access to
where everybody is treated equally and us to become better, more precise science and its benefits, and opposes
treated with respect. In creating this safe communicators because we have to pre- discrimination based on such factors
environment, managers and leaders play pare better, anticipate alternative points as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship,
a fundamental role, and it is therefore of view and expect that reaching a language, political or other opinion,
very important that they are committed consensus will take effort (Phillips, 2014; sex, gender identity, sexual orientation,
to achieving inclusion in their teams. It is Powell, 2018). Diversity also helps us disability, or age.
critical also to embrace the differences, learn to overcome cultural biases and
taking advantage of what diversity has misunderstandings, leading to more The International Astronomical Union
to offer, and not to just ignore them and tolerant and inclusive environments. (IAU) is a member of the Council and
pretend that they do not matter. Finally, Research groups that are diverse report following this mandate created the
diversity and inclusion must go hand in increased productivity, more cita- Working Group on Astronomy for Equity
hand because diversity without inclusion tions, and increases in grant income and Inclusion in 2015, after discussions
is far less effective. (Powell, 2018). about it at the 2015 General Assembly
in Hawaii. It is currently composed of
Astronomy is by its own nature an I will just mention a case recently around 200 members. Most of them are
example of inclusion of sciences, published in Nature (Gewin, 2018). The astronomers and experts in accessibil-
as well as culture and philosophy. It Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and ity, while some are outreach profession-
gathers together different fields from Astrophysics of the University of Toronto als and educators. The working group
many other fundamental sciences like in Canada established more equitable deals mainly with the topics of visual
mathematics, physics, chem- hiring practices. And after five years, the impairments, deafness, motor
istr y, geology and many more. percentage of women in the institute rose disabilities, neurological diversity, behav-
That means that astronomy from 25% to 49%, grant income rose by ioural disabilities, patients in hospitals,
benefits from discoveries made in a factor of 26 and citations increased and inclusion of minorities.1
other areas, and that astronomy has an by a factor of 10. In the Nature article,
8 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
2 These technologies include reading devices
The main goals of the Working Group There are many challenges that we
for the blind, 3D printers and thermal printers
on Equity and Inclusion are to gather a have to overcome in our goal to reach for the blind, tactile tablets, hearing aids for the
community of experts that will iden- effective diversity and inclusion in deaf, software that translates spoken sen-
tify and find solutions to challenges in science. To name a few, there are tences into written ones, captioning technolo-
accessibility in addition to compiling and unconscious biases, hiring processes gies, online sign language dictionaries, adap-
developing new tools, online resources, tailored for just part of the poten- tations of telescopes for people in
and best practices to eventually propose tial applicants, admission tests that wheelchairs, and so on.
formal declarations for the endorsement are biased against women and minor-
of the IAU. ities, physical barriers to access the
scientific information, discomfort or References
The working group is collaborating interpersonal conflicts caused by
closely with two IAU offices, the Office diversity in groups, and many more Amodio, D.M., ‘The Neuroscience of Prejudice
of Astronomy for Development and (Miller et al., 2014; Plaut, 2014; Cooper, and Stereotyping’, Nature Reviews
the Office for Astronomy Outreach. 2015; Moss-Racusina et. al., 2012; Dobbin Neuroscience, 15, 2014, p. 670-682. https://
The work thus far has resulted in the et al., 2016; Welle et al., 2014; Amodio, www.nature.com/articles/nrn3800
traveling exhibit Inspiring Stars 2014; Booksh et al., 2018). Many of these Booksh, K.S., Madsen, L.D., ‘Academic
(Figure 2), an exhibit to promote the challenges were addressed at the firsti- Pipeline for Scientists with Disabilities’, MRS
Bulletin, 3, 8, 2018, p.625-632. https://www.
concept of “inclusion” at outreach, inclusive astronomy meeting that was
cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-bulletin/
instructional, and professional levels. held at Vanderbilt University in the USA
article/academic-pipeline-for-scien-
The exhibit also aims to broaden the in 2015. The main outcome of the meet- tists-with-disabilities/864A63ED-
horizons of children, parents, teach- ing were the Nashville Recommendations 2F88AC7EB3D1E3F6214D2352
ers and astronomers through showcas- for Inclusive Astronomy, a document
Butterworth, B., Kovas, Y., ‘Understanding
ing assistive research tools for inspiring that was afterwards endorsed by the Neurocognitive Developmental Disorders
a love of science and the possibility of American Astronomical Society. Large Can Improve Education for All’, Science,
contributing to research in spite of appar- astronomy projects are also incorporat- 340, 6130, 2013, p. 300-305. https://sci-
ent obstacles. Our work has also resulted ing inclusion policies and guidelines, like ence.sciencemag.org/content/340/6130/300
in a dedicated IAU webpage to news, the creation of COINS (Committee On Cooper, M., ‘The False Promise of
best practice guidelines, and resources Inclusion iN SDSS) at the Sloan Digital Meritocracy’, The Atlantic, 2015. https://
for specific disabilities. One resource, Sky Survey. www.theatlantic.com/business/
for example, is the first comparative sign archive/2015/12/meritocracy/418074/
language dictionary for astronomical We now have the responsibility to ensure Dobbin, F., Kalev, A., ‘Why Diversity Programs
terms. inclusion and diversity are taken into Fail’, Harvard Business Review, July-August,
account in how science will be made 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversi-
The working group organised a one-day in the future. To accomplish this we ty-programs-fail
meeting on astronomy and inclusion in already have tools like the Nashville Gewin, V., ‘What does it take to make an insti-
2016 in Colombia and this year we are Recommendations and the future Mitaka tution more diverse?’, Nature 558, 2018, p.
organising a symposium in Tokyo, Japan Resolutions, and specific working groups 149-151. https://www.nature.com/articles/
titled Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and on astronomy and inclusion in some d41586-018-05317-4
Inclusion. We will discuss best practices astronomical societies and projects. Hamrick, K. et. al.,‘Women, Minorities, and
in accounting for disabilities; barriers to So, please remember: Diversity and Persons with Disabilities in Science and
access; new technologies 2; astronomy inclusion foster excellence in science. Do Engineering’, National Science Foundation,
not miss the chance to implement them National Center for Science and Engineering
for society, sustainable development
Statistics, 2019. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/
goals; the IAU100 perspectives on equity, in your institutions and research teams!
nsf19304/
diversity and inclusion; and diversity in
Harvard University Presidential Task Force on
research. You can learn more about the IAU
Inclusion and Belonging, ‘Pursuing
Working Group for Equity and Inclusion at
Excellence on a Foundation of Inclusion’,
One of the outcomes of this meeting http://sion.frm.utn.edu.ar/iau-inclusion/ Harvard University, 2018. https://inclusion-
will be The Mitaka Resolutions. This andbelongingtaskforce.harvard.edu/final-re-
document will describe a set of port
viewpoints and propose subsequent Notes Miller, C., Stassun, K., ‘A Test that Fails’,
actions, in alignment with the new Nature, 510, 7504, 2014, p. 303-304
1 Issues related to gender are covered by the
IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030 towards
Moss-Racusina, C. A., Dovidiob, J.F.,
achieving higher levels of equity, IAU Working Group of Women in Astronomy.
Brescollc, V.L., Grahama, M.J.,
diversity and inclusion in astron- Handelsmana, J., ‘Science Faculty’s Subtle
omy. The Mitaka Resolutions will be Gender Biases Favor Male Students’ PNAS,
submit ted to the IAU Executive 109, 41, 2012, p.16479. https://www.pnas.
Committee to be officially endorsed by org/content/pnas/109/41/16474.full.pdf
the IAU General Assembly in Korea in
2021.
Diversity Across Astronomy Can Further Our Research 9
Accessibility and Diversity in Astonomy
Phillips, K.W.,‘How Diversity Makes Us
Smarter’, Scientific American, 311, 4, 2014,
p. 42-47. https://www.scientificamerican.
com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-
smarter/
Plaut, V., ‘3 Myths Plus a Few Best Practices
for Achieving Diversity’, Scientific American,
311, 4, 2014, p.52-57. https://www.scientifi-
camerican.com/article/3-myths-plus-a-few-
best-practices-for-achieving-diversity/
Powell, K., ‘These labs are remarkably diverse
— here’s why they’re winning at science’,
Nature, 558, 2018, p. 19-22. https://www.
nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05316-5
Welle, B., Smith, M., ‘Time to Raise the Profile
of Women and Minorities in Science’,
Scientific American, 311, 4, 2014, p.54-55.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/
time-to-raise-the-profile-of-women-and-mi-
norities-in-science/
Biography
Amelia Ortiz-Gil is an astronomer working
in outreach and education at the University
of Valencia in Spain. She is an award-win-
ning astronomy communicator, creating the
groundbreaking “A Touch of the Universe”
kit for the blind and visually impaired and
tactile globes of the Moon, Mercury, Mars,
and Venus (so far). She is the chair of the
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
Working Group of Astronomy for Equity and
Inclusion and is the IAU National Outreach
Coordinator for Spain.
journal
Communicating Astronomy with the Public
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10 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign
Practice
Best
for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image
Lars Lindberg Christensen Colin Hunter Eduardo Ros
European Southern Observatory Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Max-Planck Institute für Radioastronomie
lars@eso.org chunter@perimeterinstitute.ca eros@mpifr-bonn.mpg.del
Mislav Baloković Katharina Königstein Oana Sandu
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Radboud University European Southern Observatory
Smithsonian k.konigstein@astro.ru.nl osandu@partner.eso.orgl
mislav.balokovic@cfa.harvard.edu
Sarah Leach Calum Turner
Mei-Yin Chou European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory
Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and reachingsarahleach@gmail.com calum.talkscience@outlook.com
Astrophysics
cmy@asiaa.sinica.edu.twl Nicolás Lira Megan Watzke
Joint ALMA Observatory Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &
Suanna Crowley Nicolas.Lira@alma.cl Smithsonian
HeadFort Consulting, LLC mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
suanna@myheadfort.com Mariya Lyubenova
European Southern Observatory Karin Zacher
Peter Edmonds mlyubeno@eso.org Institut de Radioastronomie de Millimétrique
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & zacher@iram.fr
Smithsonian Satoki Matsushita
pedmonds@cfa.harvard.edu Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and
Astrophysics
Valeria Foncea satoki@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw
Joint ALMA Observatory
Valeria.Foncea@alma.cl Harriet Parsons
East Asian Observatory
Masaaki Hiramatsu h.parsons@eaobservatory.org Keywords
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Event Horizon Telescope, media relations,
hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp black holes
An unprecedented coordinated campaign for the promotion and dissemination of the first black hole image obtained by the
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration was prepared in a period spanning more than six months prior to the publica-
tion of this result on 10 April 2019. This article describes this unusual campaign and its outcomes.
Due to the viral nature of the science and for peaceful international • The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
dissemination of this result, we believe it collaboration. (JCMT)
is reasonable to conclude that over half • The Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso
of the world’s population now know that Serrano (LMT)
humankind has taken an image of a black Introduction • The Submillimeter Array (SMA)
hole. The potential global readership • The Submillimeter Telescope (SMT),
was on the order of billions, possibly as On 10 April 2019, the EHT Collaboration and
much as 4.5 billion. The result trended as announced the first-ever image of a black • The South Pole Telescope (SPT)
number one on Twitter globally, reached hole, specifically M87* in the galaxy
the top spot on Google News, got its Messier 87. The data were obtained by Astrophysicist and author Ethan Siegel1
own Google Doodle, and was the most sophisticated interferometry using eight from Forbes elegantly sums up the dis-
popular story ever published for many radio telescopes: covery itself:
scientific organisations involved.
The authors believe this has led to a • Atacama Large Millimeter/submillime- The story of the Event Horizon Telescope
significant boost for the EHT, for ter Array (ALMA) is a remarkable example of high-risk,
the involved obser vatories and • Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment high-reward science. During the 2009
organisations, for astronomy, for (APEX) decadal review, their ambitious proposal
• The IRAM 30-meter telescope
CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019 11An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image
After months of preparation, six coordi-
nated press conferences began at 13:00
UTC:
• Brussels (English, with at least 12 sat-
ellite events2)
• Santiago (Spanish)
• Shanghai (Mandarin)
• Taipei (Mandarin)
• Tokyo (Japanese)
• Washington, D.C. (English)
At exactly 13:07 UTC the image was
unveiled at all press conferences either
through a state-of-the-art zoom video 3
(produced by ESO) or through showing
the black hole image. News of this result
was covered in most major media around
the world and went viral on social media.
This led to unprecedented coverage.
The Preparation of the Campaign
In the summer of 2017, it became clear
that although the recent EHT observing
campaign of the previous spring could
possibly generate groundbreaking sci-
ence results, the collaboration had not yet
developed a communications strategy to
announce them. In July of that year, fol-
lowing substantive early conversations,
support and encouragement from the
National Science Foundation (NSF), the
Figure 1. Some of the many newspaper front pages on 11 April 2019. Credit: Eduardo Ros EHT Collaboration began working on a
communications plan. With ongoing sup-
port from NSF, the communications plan
declared that there would be an image of has so much been gained by observing a centred on the existing EHT Outreach
a black hole by the end of the 2010s. A region where nothing, not even light, can Working Group (OWG) in order to estab-
decade later, we actually have it. That’s escape. lish an inclusive, collaborative and rep-
an incredible achievement. resentative approach that involved doz-
An unprecedented coordinated cam- ens of independent institutions. After
It relied on computational advances, the paign between the involved institutions nearly 18 months of plan development,
construction and integration of a slew of for the promotion of this high-profile sci- on 1 October 2018, the OWG brought
radio telescope facilities, and the coop- ence story began in October 2018, with together media officers from the collab-
eration of the international community. weekly alignment video conferences orating institutions to launch the unprec-
Atomic clocks, new computers, correla- amongst all layers of the collaboration edented campaign for promotion and
tors that could link up different observa- (sometimes several a week). A big focus dissemination.
tories, and many other new technologies of the work was confidentiality since
needed to be inserted into every one of the result had one singular visual — the By October 2018 a group represent-
the stations. You needed to get permis- image of the black hole — which would ing more than 100 communicators and
sion. And funding. And testing time. And, essentially give away the entire story if communication-savvy scientists from the
beyond that, permission to observe on all leaked, possibly nullifying all the prepa- involved EHT institutions were meeting
the different telescopes simultaneously. ration. The excitement of the work was in weekly video conferences led by the
significant and the tension high while pre- EHT communications coordinator Mislav
But all of this happened, and wow, did it paring to communicate the results widely Baloković. A Teamwork4 site was set up
ever pay off. We are now living in the era and at the same time keeping sensitive by the Perimeter Institute to allow the
of black hole astronomy, and the event information with big visual impact from group to collaborate. As the weeks went
horizon is there for us to image and under- leaking early. by the scientists in this ad-hoc collabo-
stand. This is just the beginning. Never ration assumed a more and more leading
12 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
role in the communications work, possi- could highlight and promote the indi- It was agreed to send out a media advi-
bly due to the high stakes at play. In gen- vidual participating organisations and sory announcing the press conferences
eral, the excitement among all the collab- telescopes. This text was then jointly on 1 April, despite some differing opin-
orators was very high due to the potential edited by the participating communi- ions among EHT partners about the
impact of the result. The primary focus cators and scientists over the course of form and timing of this communication.
was on limiting access to the image and several weeks. Collating and integrat- On the one hand, it was deemed neces-
result to as few people as possible, and ing the many comments was a hercu- sary to give journalists time to reserve
secondarily on the production of content. lean effort and allowed everyone in the flights to participate in the press con-
The OWG meetings established a frame- collaboration to share their suggestions, ferences. On the other hand, the long
work for developing content, strategies concerns and views. Most of the press time period before making the major
and deadlines, as well as opportunities releases published, notably NSF, ESO, announcement increased the chances
to share those products. the East Asian organisations and the of information leads. This risk was coun-
EHT Collaboration, respected the agreed tered by the guideline that collaboration
Starting in January 2019, parallel weekly format, but not all — mainly those from members completely avoid talking to the
meetings led by NSF focused specifically organisations who were not part of the press before the press conferences, even
on coordinating the international press above-mentioned group video confer- on background. Some science journal-
conferences, including precise logisti- ences and hence were not aware of the ists were sharply critical of this guideline
cal details. Managers of the press con- substantial alignment efforts. because it seemed unusually restrictive,
ferences, as well as some scientists and and there was also concern that com-
representatives from the relevant institu- While this approach allowed a broad peting journalists would receive access
tions, including EHT Director Sheperd range of opinions to come together, it to embargoed information, based on
Doeleman, participated. This burgeoning dramatically increased the coordina- experience with past announcements in
team did not have the benefit of an estab- tion workload and would have benefit- astronomy. Other journalists accepted
lished formal, legal or administrative ted from a more predefined approval the challenge of using publicly available
structure or any pre-existing leadership structure. However, the level of coordi- information and wrote templates of arti-
hierarchy (apart from the EHT science nation did allow for a very broad, con- cles with the assumption that the pro-
collaboration). Nevertheless, they proved structive and collaborative approach, ject had succeeded. In the end, the lack
capable of coming to agreement, and leading to many translations (includ- of leaked information was an impressive
making and abiding by major decisions ing into Hawaiian, the first such case) achievement by the collaboration. The
regarding the public announcements. and a common pool of impressive vis- 10 days of advance notice gave journal-
uals (including a Japanese comic 5). A ists enough time to travel and prepare,
The European Southern Observatory set of in-depth scientist-led factsheets and it created a sense of suspense in the
(ESO) Public Information Officer Calum about the EHT and the history of the sci- media with lots of (sometimes tangential)
Turner took the lead on writing up a joint ence leading up to the result were unfor- rumours and interest which in itself gen-
core press release with allocated spaces tunately never finalised and published. erated additional visibility to EHT and its
for “localised” content and quotes that partners (anecdotally, about one-third
of all media coverage was registered
prior to the event for the Brussels press
conference).
Such a coordinated public announcement
of this scale had never been attempted
before in astronomy. This coordination
proved remarkably successful. The fact
that there were no major leaks of infor-
mation prior to the 10 April press confer-
ences is demonstrated by the fact that
even the media was surprised to learn
that results were of M87*, not the widely
anticipated Sgr A* observations.
Press Conferences
Brussels
The Brussels press conference (Figure
2) was held at European Commission’s
(EC) Berlaymont building. Over 60 jour-
nalists attended the press conference in
Figure 2. The press conference in Brussels. Credit: European Research Council Executive Agency Brussels, while some 120 registered to
An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image 13An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image
follow it online. The YouTube live feed Le Soir, La Libre, CNET Magazine, Wired. international media. The conference
reached a peak of some 200 000 viewers. it, T-online.de, Sputnik News, Observador. was streamed online 9 and on Facebook,
After the press conference, European pt, Il Fatto Quotidiano, The Independent YouTube and Twitter-Periscope (54
Research Council (ERC) President Jean- and BBC News. 000 on Facebook, 155 000 viewers on
Pierre Bourguignon and Nobel Laureate Youtube, and more than 7000 on Twitter
Brian Schmidt opened an EHT exhibition At least 92 TV channels, including BBC (incl. 2400 Live)). The event was attended
in the same venue. News, Sky News, Deutsche Welle, TVS by at least 35 journalists. The JAO web-
Slovenia, ARD and ARTE produced 648 site had 75 000 hits on 10 April and more
According to the internal analysis by the TV reports using live satellite broadcast than 18 000 at the beginning of the press
ERC press service using Meltwater and from the press conference or the audio- conference. The JAO ALMA Instagram
Akio Spotter, the ERC has never had this visual material prepared in advance channel doubled from 25 000 to 53 000
kind of success before. The press con- by the ERC and Commission’s AV ser- followers and the publication had at least
ference in Brussels was broadcasted live vice and distributed on the day of the 487 mentions in Chilean media.
by the EC audio-visual service. The press announcement.
conference YouTube stream 6 has now Shanghai
been seen by more than 3.1 million view- The result meant that science was sol- The Shanghai press conference (Figure
ers and has had 13.6 million impressions, idly “put on the agenda” in Brussels, the 4) was hosted by Shanghai Astronomical
72 000 shares, 62 900 interactions, 58 European hotspot for politicians and Observatory (SHAO) at 21:00 CST.
000 likes and 1600 comments. It quickly news consumers in general, and also Jinliang Hou, Deputy Director of SHAO,
became the third most viewed video on that science, possibly for the first time, hosted the press conference with pres-
the EUTube account. It was the top video proved itself to the sceptical Brussels entations by Zhiqiang Shen, Director of
for all black hole videos on YouTube on press corps, which is an important cul- SHAO, and Rusen Lu, researcher and
the day of the announcement. In terms of tural change at the EC. Head of the Max Planck Partner Group
engagement, it was the most successful at SHAO. Suijian Xue, Deputy Director-
EUTube7 video ever. Santiago General of The National Astronomy
The press conference in Santiago Observatory of China (NAOC) was also
More than 500 entities embedded the (Figure 3) was hosted by the Joint in attendance.
live stream on their websites. Le Monde ALMA Observatory (JAO) and ESO,
hosted more than 2 hours 30 minutes and was introduced by the Atacama The event was covered by almost all of
live streaming, which according to the Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array the major Chinese media broadcasters
Le Monde website 8 became third best (ALMA) Director, Sean Dougherty, and popular media companies including
live stream in the history of Le Monde and ESO’s Director General, Xavier CCTV, People’s Daily, XinhuaNet, China
and had a larger online audience than Barcons. It featured presentations from News, China News Week, Guangming
France’s victory at the FIFA World Cup researchers behind the result (ALMA’s Online, Sina Net, and Science and
2018 for football when more than 45 Violette Impellizzeri and MIT Haystack Technology Daily. Media tracking up
000 people connected. The live stream Observatory’s Geoff Crew). to the end of April indicated that the
also appeared on Euronews, Le Figaro, video of the press conference has been
Bloomberg, Sky, El Confidencial, Evening This event was intended for Spanish- watched over 50 million times, with over
Standard, Agenzia ANSA, Science Alert, speaking journalists from the local and 5000 stories covering the press confer-
Figure 3. Attendees at the press conference in Santiago. Credit: F. Pizarro/ Figure 4 The Shanghai press conference. Credit: Shanghai Astronomical
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) Observatory
14 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
ence and 52 million interactions related Tokyo Washington, D.C.
to the press conference on various plat- The Tokyo Press Conference (Figure 6) The Washington, D.C. press confer-
forms (e.g. Weibo, People’s Daily Online, was held at the Tokyo Garden Terrace ence (Figure 7) was held at the National
XinhuaNet, CCTV website and Tiktok). Kioi Conference facility. Although it was Press Club and featured NSF Director
inconveniently late in the evening in France Córdova, EHT Director Sheperd
Alongside the press conference, SHAO Japan (22:00 JST)), 61 journalists and Doeleman, and astronomers Dan
produced a series of informative scientific 14 TV crews attended the event. The Marrone, Avery Broderick and Sera
interpretations and eight videos about National Astronomical Observatory of Markoff. More than 56 reporters were
the black hole. Media tracking up to 18 Japan (NAOJ) live stream on YouTube10 in the room (roughly the same as in
April indicated that on the social media and niconico11 had about 85 000 views. Brussels). Audiences included more
platform WeChat these articles were read The press release on the NAOJ website12 than 735 000 viewers on YouTube and
more than 1 million times and these vid- had up until 30 April almost 300 000 520 000 on Facebook Live. The YouTube
eos were viewed 3.3 million times using pageviews. The major Japanese TV sta- stream14 has by now accumulated 1.3 mil-
TikTok and Xigua Video platform. tions NHK and TV Asahi live-streamed the lion views, 22 000 likes, 758 comments,
press conference on their app and Twitter 5.3 million impressions, and 32 667
Taipei account. The tweet by @ALMA_Japan of shares. The Facebook Live feed now has
The press conference in Taipei (Figure 5) the image gained 960 000 impressions 716 000 views and 60 000 likes and reac-
was hosted by the Academia Sinica and 32 000 engagements, both the high- tions. Other press conferences streamed
(AS) and the Ministry of Science and est numbers achieved in eight-year his- the Washington, D.C. press conference
Technology (MOST) in Taiwan. It was tory of the account. as the start of their programmes.
introduced by the President of Academia
Sinica, James Liao, and featured pres- NAOJ produced a comic to introduce Following the press conference, NSF
entations from researchers Asada Keiichi a brief history of radio interferometry facilitated on-camera interviews with
and Masanori Nakamura. The con- and the EHT project in both Japanese such outlets as NBC Nightly News, CBS
ference was streamed online through and English. The comic was distributed Evening News and BBC News; calls with
Facebook and Youtube (956 000 viewers through Twitter and the NAOJ website. the New York Times, the Los Angeles
on Youtube and 620 000 on Facebook, The tweets (two posts) gained 680 000 Times and others; and in-depth conver-
which corresponds to about 7% of the impressions and 53 000 engagements sations with National Geographic, the
Taiwanese population). The press con- in total. The comic was also distributed Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today,
ference live stream has now been viewed as a PDF and several science centres in Xinhua, The Washington Post and doz-
more than 1.6 million times. There were Japan posted it as a part of their exhibi- ens of other leading outlets from across
more than 50 reports shown in Taiwanese tions. A simple poster to show the result the globe (Figure 10). Through coordi-
media on 10 and 11 April. More impres- made by NAOJ (only in Japanese) was nation with media officers at partnered
sively, the President of Taiwan, Ing-Wen also widely used by science centres. U.S. research institutions, some of which
Tsai, praised the success of the imag- The result was mentioned in the regu- streamed the Washington, D.C. event,
ing of the black hole shadow on her lar press conferences of the Japanese regional press engagement was also
Instagram account. Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, strong — more than 145 U.S. broadcast
Science and Technology (MEXT) and the affiliates aired reports that mentioned
Chief Cabinet Secretary13. both EHT and NSF. Analytics identified a
Figure 5. The journalists at the Taipei press conference. Credit: Academia Figure 6. The press conference in Tokyo. Credit: NAOJ
Sinica
An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image 15An Unprecedented Global Communications Campaign for the Event Horizon Telescope First Black Hole Image
only indicative and should be used with
caution and significant caveats15.
Several of the people involved with EHT
communication made what we nick-
named the “taxi-driver test”: asking ran-
dom laypeople about black holes (for
instance, in taxis), which led to a per-
ceived near-complete coverage in the
awareness of the story among random
people in the western world (N = ~100).
The result reached the top spot on
Google News (Figure 8) and Google
Trends (Figure 9) show an interesting
two-day peak with a relatively long tail of
six to seven days of sustained interest.
Impact in Some Selected Cases
The collaboration’s website16 received
Figure 7. The US press conference panellists. Credit: National Science Foundation
unprecedented traffic in the days lead-
ing up to the press conference, the day
of the event itself, and the immediate
total of 400 broadcast news stories, with measure. The viewership numbers are period that followed. During March 2018
half mentioning NSF. reported in the summary above and the the website received roughly 600 visitors
hundreds of front pages from around the daily, but on 8 and 9 April this surged to
In the afternoon, the presenters gave world, some of which were collected by about 50 000 visitors per day, before spik-
a briefing sponsored by the House of Eduardo Ros (Figure 1), clearly show the ing to 450 000 visitors on the day of the
Representatives Committee on Science, global penetration of the result and the press conference. The two days immedi-
Space and Technology. Staff from both viral nature of its coverage. ately following the press conference saw
the House and Senate attended as 130 000 and 42 000 visitors per day to the
well as committee Chairwoman Rep. On 10 April, Rick Fienberg, the press site before declining as expected.
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Ranking officer for the American Astronomical
Member Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Society (AAS) sent out around 20 press NSF
Congressman Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). In releases which were just a fraction of In anticipation of unprecedented pub-
a separate press release, Rep. Lucas con- the total estimated 40-50 press releases lic interest, NSF launched a special
gratulated the EHT on its success. Later produced. report page17 several weeks in advance
that evening, the Harvard-Smithsonian of the EHT press conferences. This
Center for Astrophysics hosted a recep- Thousands of major news outlets reported site featured stories about NSF black
tion at the Smithsonian’s National Air and on the story, which led to unprecedented hole research, and, with EHT approval,
Space Museum for invited guests. coverage. According to news chief Ray teased the announcement by hosting
Villard at Space Telescope Science a trailer for the Smithsonian Channel’s
On 16 May 2019, Córdova and Doeleman Institute, the EHT image made 3500 documentary Black Hole Hunters. On 10
returned to Capitol Hill, this time accom- online articles with a potential 4.5 billion April, the NSF page transformed to host
panied by MIT Haystack Observatory readers (as an upper limit). The Bennet the Washington, D.C. live stream and link
Director Colin Lonsdale and EHT sci- Group in Hawaii reported a similar num- to a media site with a wealth of custom
entist Katie Bouman, to testify on the ber of theoretical maximum readership visuals including an animation based
science results before a full commit- for a narrower subset of the storyline: on EHT modelling data, as well as inter-
tee hearing of the House Committee on “Aggregate Readership: 4 673 590 910 views, B-roll, stills, backgrounders, and
Science, Space, and Technology, which for reflecting media results directly attrib- eventually even a downloadable poster.
was also broadcast on the TV network utable to Bennet Group’s collaboration One of the new videos, an NSF montage
C-SPAN. with James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and featuring the EHT telescopes and data
Submillimeter Array”. Cision Analytics centres, aired during the core press con-
identified more than 1000 news articles ferences around the globe and served as
Press Coverage mentioning both EHT and NSF, with a B-roll for a number of broadcasts.
theoretical maximum audience of up to
Naturally, the impact of a worldwide 2.2 billion unique viewers. Such theo- In addition to distinguished guests,
campaign of this magnitude is hard to retical readership numbers are naturally including Director Kelvin Droegemeierof
16 CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019CAPjournal, No. 26, October 2019
of the White House Office of Science that between 13% and 20% of the articles potential readers. Additionally, French-
and Technology Policy, NSF invited a worldwide mention ESO. speaking media published about 400 arti-
broad pool of EHT team members and cles (web, radio, TV, written press) men-
experts to ensure journalists featured the Despite undergoing significant hardware tioning “EHT” and “IRAM”. More than 100
broader EHT Collaboration in addition to and software upgrades in the months written articles mentioning “IRAM” were
the image. before the release, the ESO web serv- published in Germany alone.
ers were somewhat saturated for around
ESO 60 minutes from 15:00 to 16:00 CEST Radboud University
ESO played a major role in developing (13:00 to 14:00 UTC) on 10 April (espe- Radboud University in the Netherlands,
the story and a rich set of visuals that cially for low-bandwidth connections). another stakeholder in the EHT
were published together with the press Over the first six days after the release, Collaboration, was mentioned in more
release on the ESO website18: a total of ESO accumulated 36 million hits on its than 4000 online articles peaking on
20 images and 13 videos, which were web pages and 1.1 million views of the 10 April with 1600 online articles, and
shared with others throughout the col- press release itself. It is estimated that the press release was picked up by the
laboration. Though ESO is not a mem- the press release got at least seven times NRC Handelsblad, de Volkskrant, RTL 4
ber of the EHT Collaboration, its contri- more visitors and traffic than the 2017 and NOS. The news reached the largest
butions through ALMA and APEX were high-impact optical counterpart detec- audience via the Algemeen Dagblad in
significant. A special ESO EHT landing tion of gravitational waves (LIGO-Virgo) the Netherlands — 6.8 million potential
page19 was set up and has so far had release20. readers. In collaboration with Radboud
hundreds of thousands of views. astronomer Jordy Davelaar, among oth-
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique ers, a video was produced in which the
A check soon after the publication on (IRAM) black hole was simulated. This video has
the press clippings service Meltwater IRAM, one of the thirteen EHT stake- been viewed almost 100 000 times on
found 487 stories for “ESO + black holder institutes, reported similar out- several YouTube channels21.
hole” plus an additional unknown num- comes. IRAM, a research institute in
ber for “European Southern Observatory France, was mentioned in more than Chile
+ black hole”, which leads us to believe 400 online articles (mainly German and In Chile, the black hole image hit the front
English-speaking) with about 182 million pages of the main media and with broad
coverage on all the news shows broad-
casted on open TV (TVN, MEGA, CHV,
Canal 13). It is estimated from Meltwater
(Search of “EHT + ALMA”) that at least
700 million theoretical readers received
the news mentioning ALMA and the
press clipping service LitoraPress cal-
culated the ALMA coverage in Chilean
media worth around USD $1.8 million in
Advertising Equivalent Value.
Japan
In Japan, all the daily national newspa-
pers and many local papers covered the
EHT result next morning. The embargo
lifted at 22:07 JST in Japan — a some-
what disadvantageous hour and too late
for some newspapers to include the EHT
results in their morning issue (especially
Figure 8. The image was the number one story headline on Google News on 10 April ( higher than any political for the editions distributed to the coun-
news). Credit: Google News
tryside regions, where the readership
is higher than in urban areas). Even in
this situation, ~300 articles were pub-
lished (until 30 April 2019). The articles
include plain news reports, interviews
with Japanese researchers focusing
on personal aspects, and editorial arti-
cles. Major Japanese TV news pro-
grammes and tabloid shows covered
the EHT result and some programmes
interviewed Mareki Honma, the leader of
Figure 9. The Google Trend for “black hole” in April 2019. Credit: Google Trends EHT-Japan team. Three TV stations fol-
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