In the news

From ABC7: Fermilab scientist Brad Benson talks about the South Pole Telescope’s role part in the Event Horizon Telescope. Scientists behind the Event Horizon Telescope recently revealed the first image ever made of a black hole, depicting its hot, shadowy edges where light bends around itself in a cosmic funhouse effect. Assembling data gathered by eight radio telescopes around the world, astronomers created the picture showing the violent neighborhood around a supermassive black hole, the light-sucking monsters of the universe theorized by Einstein more than a century ago and confirmed by observations for decades.

From WBEZ’s Morning Shift, April 10, 2019: WBEZ interviews Fermilab scientist Brad Benson about the recent unveiling of the first ever photograph of a black hole. The Event Horizon Telescope, a collaboration between more than 200 scientists using telescopes from around the world, shot photographs of a supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87.

From CERN, March 19, 2019: DUNE co-spokesperson Stefan Soldner-Rembold talks the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment hosted at Fermilab, neutrinos and the global particle physics community’s efforts to understand this subtle particle.

From CNN, April 10, 2019: Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln explains the big news from the Event Horizon Telescope on its first direct observation of a black hole at the center of a galaxy named M87. M87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo.

From CNN, April 6, 2019: Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln explains a result from the GRAVITY collaboration, which put Einstein’s theory of relativity to the test, making measurements of light near a black hole.

From Daily Herald, April 8, 2019: On Wednesday, April 17, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Fermilab will offer high school students a valuable opportunity to ask those questions in person. The annual STEM Career Expo, held in the atrium of Wilson Hall, will put those students face to face with people actually doing the jobs they will be applying for in the coming years.

From Atlas Obscura, April 2, 2019: In February 1971, physicists at National Accelerator Laboratory began testing the biggest machine in the world: a ring-shaped, 200-billion-electronvolt proton synchrotron particle accelerator. The stakes were high. They soon ran into a perplexing problem: Magnets that were essential to its operation kept failing. The low-tech solution proposed for this high-tech trouble? A ferret named Felicia.

From WDCB’s First Light, March 24, 2019: Brian O’Keefe interviews Fermilab PIP-II Project Director Lia Merminga about PIP-II, an accelerator project critical to the lab’s future. Fermilab broke ground on PIP-II on March 15. Learn about how PIP-II will power the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab, and the lab’s experimental program in this 15-minute piece.

From Gizmodo, March 20, 2019: The Proton Improvement Plan II, formally approved by the Department of Energy last summer, includes plans for the highest-energy linear particle accelerator to accelerate a continuous stream of protons — a central component to the American particle physics laboratory. Fermilab PIP-II Project Director Lia Merminga is quoted in this article.

From University of Chicago news, March 15, 2019: Fermilab officially broke ground March 15 on a major new particle accelerator project that will power cutting-edge physics experiments for many decades to come. The new 700-foot-long linear accelerator, part of the laboratory’s Proton Improvement Plan II, will be the first accelerator project built in the United States with significant contributions from international partners.