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Currently Playing: The Black Hole M87* Seen Through a Polarizer | Event Horizon Telescope

Light waves oscillate as they travel through space. However, light often does not have a preferred direction of oscillation. We call this unpolarized light. When unpolarized light goes through a polarized filter, the light becomes polarized and it oscillates only at a specific angle. The Event Horizon Telescope can observe and image both unpolarized and polarized light from the black hole M87*. This video shows how the black hole M87* looks if we only see emitted light with a particular polarization direction, just like if we were looking at it through a rotating polarizer. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. To learn more, you can check out our website at https://eventhorizontelescope.org/. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ehtelescope Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehtelescope/ Or follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ehtelescope/ If you enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and subscribe! Credit: Animation: Ivan Marti-Vidal, University of Valencia Underlying image and data: EHT Collaboration