As an off-site instructor, part of my job is to present our traveling Unisphere to various groups in the area. The Unisphere is a large inflatable sphere, where inside we use a rotating light projector to look at the stars.Before we enter, I always ask the the students what we might see in the Unisphere. Here are some of their responses; “I wanna see all the STARS!”, “We’ll find constellations.”, “We won’t see much casue it’s too dark in there, Miss Cate. “ (Yep, I have smart kids.)

I was recently teaching a Unisphere program, when I was presented with a very simple question. “Will we see a black hole?” I love learning and talking about black holes, but it bugged me that I could show the kids a black hole. I mean, it is something which by definition you can’t see BUT you can detect.

We know that black holes exist but to get some really good pictures of one we’d have to build a telescope about the size of planet Earth. Let me tell you that’s not happening any time soon, but scientists have found an even better solution.

By feeding data from world-wide radio telescopes into a supercomputer scientists have created an imaging area the size of the Earth. This expansive area allows them to capture images in radio wavelengths at resolutions that should let them see straight to the heart of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

I may not be able to point out a black hole or two in the Unisphere, but they’re out there! Through data and visual observations scientists are helping us to learn more and more about black holes! Once you think you’ve wrapped your head around a black hole, start looking at worm holes. It’s so cosmic it'll blow your mind!