While the best internet connections are currently measured in a few gigabits per second, shipping those drives from Hawaii to MIT works out to 14 gigabytes per second (112 gigabits per second).

Figuring in trips to and from the airport and the flight itself, it took around 50,400 seconds to move the data. The Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii might have generated about 700TB of data (one-seventh of the total), and it's 5,000 miles from MIT in Boston. Jason Snell at Six Colors has helpfully worked out the effective data rate (Opens in a new window) of shipping these hard drives. That's why MIT has 1,000 pounds of hard drives sitting in its Haystack Observatory labs. The findings are detailed in a new paper in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. It's faster to actually ship the hard drives to collaborators around the world. There's simply no way to send that much data efficiently over the internet. But how do you get all that data to the correlation teams in the US and Germany? You use an airplane.Īccording to Marrone, 5 petabytes is equal to 5,000 years of MP3 audio.

Black Hole stock photos are available in a variety of sizes and formats to fit your needs. Scientists like MIT's Katie Bouman (above) had to develop algorithms to take 5 petabytes of data and make sense of it. Browse Getty Images premium collection of high-quality, authentic Black Hole stock photos, royalty-free images, and pictures. At the end of that observation, the EHT didn't have an image - it had a mountain of data. The now-famous image of a black hole comes from data collected over a period of seven days. Dan Marrone, Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona says the EHT team had to install specialized super-fast data recorders on the various radio telescopes to handle the influx of measurements. The EHT had to collect a huge volume of data to deliver us this one image. The EHT used a principle called interferometry to combine the capacity of all those telescopes, creating a 'virtual' telescope the size of the Earth. That isn't a single instrument but rather a collection of seven radio telescopes from around the world. It also required about half a ton of hard drives.ĭata collection for the historic black hole image began in 2017 with a coordinated effort called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). It took years of work and the collaboration of more than 200 scientists to make it happen.

Finally, we can put some of Einstein's most famous predictions from a century ago to the test, but it was not as easy as pointing a big lens at the M87 galaxy and pressing a button. Dogs are allowed on the trail.The newly released image of a black hole (below) is a watershed moment for physics. What to expect: Crowds, magnificent views of downtown Phoenix and Tempe, and incredible sandstone formations. If parking is unavailable, there are plenty of other parking lots within easy walking distance. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, parking lot directing you to the formation. The formation is thought to have been used by the ancient Hohokam civilization to track the position of the sun through a hole in the rock 'ceiling.' The trail to the chamber consists of steps that rise 200 feet in just a short 1/10 of a mile. Publisher of fine illustrated & visual books on pop culture, nature, architecture, design, gardening, and more + childrens illustrated books, stationery. This intriguing formation on the park's east side features a main chamber that looks out over nearby lagoons and the distant downtown skyline, and is great for views ( especially at sunset). to 7 p.m, but trails are open until 11 p.m. Hours: Gated roadways and parking areas are open 6 a.m. Restrooms, drinking fountains, picnic ramadas are available on this side. By Jonathan Amos,BBC Science Correspondent, BBCAmos. Trails include an interpretive nature trail to learn about Sonoran Desert flora and fauna, as well as a short hike inside Hole-in-the-Rock, the park's most popular scenic viewpoint and one of Phoenix's best hikes. Hours: Gated roadways and parking areas are open from sunrise to sunset or 7 p.m., whichever comes first, but trails are open until 11 p.m. Try the 2.3-mile Double Butte Loop for a full experience of the park. The parking lot on Papago Park Drive has a drinking fountain, bike rack and picnic ramada, and no restrooms. You can take an accessible, paved pathway as well as a series of trails and loops around a big butte and small butte. The park is split into east and west sides by Galvin Parkway. The trails in Papago Park are typically smooth with little elevation gain, providing easy access for walking, hiking, mountain biking or trail running.

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