Press releases

The "InterCare" research project carried out at Goethe University Frankfurt's Faculty of Educational Sciences shines a spotlight on young people in training who care for older adults. Initial research already shows that society is far less aware of this group than it should be. 

FRANKFURT. About one in eight young people undergoing training – as pupils, apprentices or university students – is wholly or partially responsible for the well-being and care of older, sick or disabled relatives or other loved ones, a study by the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies shows. This group is even larger than that of students who care for children. 

Young women as well as young adults with a migratory background, irrespective of their gender, are more likely to face the pressures of simultaneously managing care and education. "This huge group of individuals is completely overlooked in the public eye," says Dr. Anna Wanka, whose research focuses on finding out more about the everyday life of these young people, the challenges they are facing, and on how to support them. Being responsible for an older person often influences not only academic performance, but also the decision for or against university or further education, especially in another city. Those who do decide to continue with their education often have a guilty conscience, feel shame towards peers and lecturers, and face daily hurdles in their efforts to reconcile education and care. 

"InterCare" is the first comprehensive research project to take a detailed look at this group. It will start officially in October 2024, from which point onwards it will receive €1.2 million in funding from the Volkswagen Foundation over the course of four years, as part of the "Challenges and Potentials for Europe: Intergenerational Futures" funding line. Project lead Wanka also heads Goethe University Frankfurt's Emmy Noether Research Group "Linking Ages", which focuses on the material-discursive practices of un/doing age across the life course. 

Faced with a reality of ageing populations in all European countries, Volkswagen Foundation's funding program primarily targeted research groups that address questions of demographic change, with the stipulation that the institutions in charge of the research come from at least three different European countries. In addition to Anglia Ruskin University in the UK and Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Mönchengladbach-based Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences is also part of the program, represented by Moritz Heß, Professor of Gerontology. A close look at Poland, for example, shows that many professional nursing staff work in western countries, especially Germany, where they earn more money. The resulting shortage of professionals at home puts even greater pressure on relatives there. 

The first phase of the study will consist of a quantitative survey in Germany: How many people are actually affected? (How) Do educational institutions address the situation? Where do rules and regulations – including compulsory attendance in laboratories and seminar rooms – make it impossible to join a course? These results will then be compared with the situation in the UK and Poland. As part of a second phase, the project foresees "dyadic interviews", in which a young person with care responsibilities and the older person being cared for are interviewed both individually and together. "The separate interviews are necessary to allow for the discussion of topics associated with shame, experiences of violence, and restrictions on freedom," says Wanka. Partly participatory in nature, those joining the project will help shape the course of the study and work together with the researchers to produce a virtual exhibition and a podcast series to raise awareness of the topic. 

Background information: 
ITVNews Coverage
BBC Coverage 

Further information
Dr. Anna Wanka
Institute for Social Pedagogy and Adult Education
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel.: +49 (0)69 798-36411
E-Mail Wanka@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Homepage: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/129313223/Anna_Wanka
Twitter handle/user name: WankaAnna 

Dr. Wanka may be able to facilitate interviews with study participants.

Editor: Dr. Anke Sauter, Science Editor, PR & Communication Office, Tel: +49 (0)69 798-13066, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, sauter@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de

FRANKFURT. The Frankfurt/Rhine-Main science region is characterized by a high density of research institutions that are already interconnected in many ways, based on common research interests and numerous cooperation agreements. To meet the major challenges of the 21st century and work together on new solutions, however, requires closer cooperation: That is why, as an initial step, 16 institutions have now joined forces and set up the Frankfurt Alliance, which is comprised of institutes from the four major scientific organizations in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region, one federal institution, as well as Goethe University Frankfurt. The idea behind the network and its joint framework conditions is to create synergies and counteract the increasing segregation of work processes and research topics. 

By simplifying the conditions for joint research, reducing existing obstacles in the respective administrations by means of overarching regulations, establishing joint structures and infrastructures, and vigorously representing the interests of Frankfurt's excellent scientists in the political arena, the Frankfurt Alliance provides the framework not only for joint research, but also the transformation of scientific structures. In addition, joint activities are expected to result in closer integration between the institutions. The vision is to further develop the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region as a leading research hub in Europe and to further increase its international standing and attractiveness for top-level research. 

Frankfurt Alliance's first joint public event will be a science festival, to be held in downtown Frankfurt on September 28, at which the participating institutions will present themselves to the public. 

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research: "I congratulate all parties involved as well as the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region for having established the Frankfurt Alliance. In today's world, which presents us not only with great challenges but also opportunities, it is more important than ever to bundle excellence and intensify cooperation. The new science network created here holds enormous potential, and I wish it the utmost success." 

Timon Gremmels, Hessian Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts: "Science and research are essential to mastering the transformation processes of our time and at the same time securing our democracy – something which will be all the more successful by joining forces. The Frankfurt Alliance will make the outstanding research and transfer work in Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region even more effective and visible – whether with regard to internationalization, research infrastructures or personnel recruitment. The latter is particularly important, especially in view of increasing competition for the best scientific minds. That is why the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts Culture is supporting the Frankfurt Alliance both this year and next with a total of more than €500.000." 

Mike Josef, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt: "The new science network is a great initiative that many people have been waiting for. Frankfurt is an excellent science and research location – two areas with which the city must be even more closely associated. This initiative is an important step in this direction. Better networking among our science and research institutions, including at an administrative level, increases the attractiveness of the entire region, enabling us to better recruit and retain skilled workers." 

Dr. Bastian Bergerhoff, Frankfurt City Treasurer: "An extremely strong alliance has come together here, which will boost Frankfurt as a science location and promote cooperation in the region. Science is, after all, also a driving force for the economy, culture and urban society, and creates material and immaterial prosperity – which is why it plays such an important role in terms of location, too. There is great potential here, which can be leveraged even better together." 

Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt: "The Memorandum of Understanding is an important step on the path to even closer networking between the scientific institutions in Frankfurt. Together, we have the unique potential to work on the important issues of the future and enter into a productive dialog with the public. I am already looking forward to September's science festival, and am convinced that its exciting program will bring together many interested people from the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region and beyond and convey just how great an impact science in Frankfurt has on the economy, society and the shaping of political opinions." 

The members of the Frankfurt Alliance: 

• DIPF | – Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education
• Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE 
• Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) 
• Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (SGN) 
• Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) 
• Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (ITMP) 
• Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) 
• the Max Planck Institutes for Biophysics (MPIBP), Empirical Aesthetics (MPIAe), Heart & Lung Research (MPIHL), Brain Research (MPIBR), and Legal History & Legal Theory (MPILHLT) 
• Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience (ESI) 
• Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) 
• German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Frankfurt/Main site, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) 
• Goethe University Frankfurt 

Image for download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/148705178 

Caption: The Memorandum of Understanding of the Frankfurt Alliance was signed in the Römer Frankfurt City Hall. Photo: Peter Kiefer/Goethe University Frankfurt

Editor: Dr. Dirk Frank, Press Officer/ Deputy Press Spokesperson, PR & Communications Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel.: +49 (0)69/798-13753, frank@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de

Ovarian cancer is often very aggressive and responds poorly to the therapies currently available. A recent study by Goethe University Frankfurt and University Hospital Frankfurt offers hope that this could change in the medium term. The researchers used an mRNA as a therapeutic. With its help, the tumor cells produced a protein again that prevents their own uncontrolled proliferation or induces cell death. The mRNA therapeutic successfully combated cancerous cells and tumors in vitro as well as metastases in mice.

FRANKFURT. Each year, several thousand women in Germany die from ovarian cancer. In many cases, the disease is only detected when it is very advanced and metastases have already formed – usually in the intestines, abdomen or lymph nodes. At such a late stage, only 20 to 30 percent of all those affected survive the next five years. “Unfortunately, this situation has hardly changed at all over the past two decades," says Professor Klaus Strebhardt, Director of the Department of Molecular Gynecology and Obstetrics at University Hospital Frankfurt.

96 percent of all ovarian cancer (high-grade) patients share the same clinical picture: The tumor suppressor gene p53 has mutated and is now non-functional. The gene contains the building instructions for an important protein that normally recognizes damage in the genetic material (DNA) of each cell. It then prevents these abnormal cells from proliferating and activates repair mechanisms that rectify the damage. If this fails, it induces cell death. “In this way, p53 is very effective in preventing carcinogenesis," explains Strebhardt. “But when it is mutated, this protective mechanism is eradicated."

If a cell wants to produce a certain protein, it first makes a transcript of the gene containing the building instructions for it. Such transcripts are called mRNAs. In women with ovarian cancer, the p53 mRNAs are just as defective as the gene from which they were copied. “We produced an mRNA in the laboratory that contained the blueprint for a normal, non-mutated p53 protein," says Dr. Monika Raab from the Department of Molecular Gynecology and Obstetrics, who conducted many of the key experiments in the study. “We packed it into small lipid vesicles, known as liposomes, and then tested them first in cultures of various human cancer cell lines. The cells used the artificial mRNA to produce functional p53 protein."

In the next step, the scientists cultivated ovarian tumors – organoids – from patient cells sourced by the team led by Professor Sven Becker, Director of the Women's Clinic at University Hospital Frankfurt. After treatment with the artificial mRNA, the organoids shrank and began to die. 

To test whether the artificial mRNA is also effective in organisms and can combat metastases in the abdomen, the researchers implanted human ovarian tumor cells into the ovaries of mice and injected the mRNA liposomes into the animals some time later. The result was very convincing, says Strebhardt: “With the help of the artificial mRNA, cells in the animals treated produced large quantities of the functional p53 protein, and as a result both the tumors in the ovaries and the metastases disappeared almost completely." 

That the method was so successful is partly due to recent advances in mRNA technology: Normally, mRNA transcripts are very sensitive and degraded by cells within minutes. However, it is meanwhile possible to prevent this by specifically modifying the molecules. This extends their lifespan substantially, in this study to up to two weeks.

In addition, the chemical composition of the artificial mRNA is slightly different to that of its natural counterpart. This prevents the immune system from intervening after the molecule has been injected and from triggering inflammatory responses. In 2023, the Hungarian scientist Katalin Karikó and her American colleague Drew Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. “Thanks to the development of mRNA vaccines such as those of BioNTech and Moderna, which went into action during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we now also know how to make the molecules even more effective," explains Strebhardt. 

Strebhardt, Raab and Becker are now looking for partners to join the next step of the translational project: testing on patients with ovarian cancer. “What is crucial now is the question of whether we can implement the concept and the results in clinical reality and use our method to help cancer patients," says Strebhardt. The latest results make him very optimistic that the tide could finally turn in the treatment of ovarian carcinomas. “p53 mRNA is not a normal therapeutic that targets a specific weak point in cancer cells. Instead, we are repairing a natural mechanism that the body normally uses very effectively to suppress carcinogenesis. This is a completely different quality of cancer therapy."

Publication: Monika Raab, Izabela Kostova, Samuel Peña-Llopis, Daniela Fietz, Monika Kressin, Seyed Mohsen Aberoumandi, Evelyn Ullrich, Sven Becker, Mourad Sanhaji, Klaus Strebhardt. Rescue of p53 functions by in vitro-transcribed mRNA impedes the growth of high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Cancer Commun (Lond). 2023 Dec 22. https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.12511 

Picture download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/147945369 

Caption: Tumors produced from cells taken from patients with ovarian cancer, known as organoids (light microscope images, left side), start to shrink and die after treatment with p53 mRNA (bottom pictures), which is visible in the red coloring (right side). Red bars: 200 micrometers. Photos: Monika Raab, University Hospital Frankfurt 

Further Information: Professor Klaus Strebhardt Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of Molecular Gynecology and Obstetrics University Hospital Frankfurt / Goethe University Frankfurt Telephone: +49 (0)69 6301- 6894 strebhardt@em.uni-frankfurt.de 

Twitter/X: @goetheuni @UK_Frankfurt

Dr. Johannes Karges (31), a chemist from Ruhr University Bochum, will be awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Early Career Award 2024, the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation announced today. The prizewinner discovered how platinum-containing chemotherapeutics accumulate in tumor tissue, and how, from here, they can be activated using either light or ultrasound as triggers. Karges already provided preclinical proof of these methods, whose translation into clinical practice could drastically reduce the serious side effects of these most commonly used cancer drugs worldwide and significantly increase their effectiveness. 

FRANKFURT. Around half of all chemotherapy treatments worldwide are carried out with cisplatin and two of its derivatives. These cytostatic drugs prevent cancer cells from dividing, and have shown impressive success against some types of cancer for several decades already. They do, however, quickly lead to resistance. Given that platinum preparations also inhibit the division of healthy body cells, they are associated with serious side effects, which range from nausea and vomiting to kidney, hearing and nerve damage and even inhibition of blood formation in the bone marrow. That is why the search for a way to ensure these cytostatic drugs only act on the cancer cells they are intended to destroy has long been underway. This would make them similar to magic bullets in the sense of Paul Ehrlich, which only cure the disease without harming the rest of the body. The research conducted by Johannes Karges and his team has breathed new life into this vision. 

The two initial questions of this research were: How can we selectively accumulate the cytostatic drug or a precursor thereof in the tumor? And, following on from this: How can we selectively activate it there? The answer lies in the construction of tiny spheres (nanoparticles) that are too large to penetrate healthy tissue, but small enough to squeeze between cancer cells. Healthy cells are tightly bound together, whereas, due to the high division rate of its cells, the connection between tumor tissue is patchy. The nanoparticles are equipped with built-in remote triggers that are activated by external signals. Photo- or sonosensitizers are suitable as receivers. These molecules have the ability to convert the energy of absorbed light or sound into chemical reactions in which electrons are released and absorbed (redox reactions). 

Together with his Chinese research partner Prof. Haihua Xiao, Karges has so far successfully tested two mixtures that can be “detonated" in cancer cells using these time fuses. In the first case, he coupled the active ingredient oxaliplatin to a photosensitizer and bound both molecules into a fat-soluble polymer, onto whose ends he attached water-soluble peptides, which acted as “address labels", so to speak, for transport into the cell nucleus. The resulting chains self-assembled into spheres with a diameter of some 80 nanometers. Once these beads reached the nucleus of the cancer cell, nothing happened – that is, as long as darkness prevailed. The moment these spheres were irradiated with red light, they disintegrated, releasing oxaliplatin and highly aggressive oxygen, and thereby destroying the cancer cells. 

However, red light does not penetrate deeper than one centimeter into an organism and therefore cannot reach most human tumors. Ultrasound waves travel ten times the distance in the body. That is why, in the second case, Karges used a computer to calculate which sonosensitizers, when irradiated with ultrasound waves, could convert a non-toxic precursor (prodrug) of cisplatin into the toxic substance. He found hemoglobin to be best suited and proceeded to pack the biomolecule and the prodrug into nanoparticles in the tried and tested way. In this instance, too, the particles selectively accumulated in cancer cells. While they remained stable under physiological conditions, after sonication in the presence of ascorbic acid, it took only a few minutes for the prodrug to convert entirely into cisplatin. 

Karges and Xiao were able to confirm their findings obtained in cell cultures in experiments with mice. In both of the cases described above, the tumors of the animals injected with the nanoparticles disappeared almost completely within a short time after external irradiation with red light or ultrasound. 

Johannes Karges, PhD, studied chemistry at Philipps-Universität Marburg and at Imperial College London from 2011 to 2016. As a doctoral student, he conducted research in the field of bioinorganics at the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, France, and at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. After his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla from 2020 to 2022. Since November 2022, he has headed his own research group at Ruhr University Bochum as a Liebig Fellow of the German Chemical Industry Fund. 

The Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation will present the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Early Career Award 2024 as well as the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2024 during a festive ceremony held 14 March 2024 at 5 p.m. in Frankfurt's Paulskirche. 

Pictures of the award winner and detailed background information "Remote-controlled magic bullets" are available for download at: www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de 

Further information
Press Office Paul Ehrlich Foundation
Joachim Pietzsch
Phone: +49 (0)69 36007188
E-mail: j.pietzsch@wissenswort.com
www.paul-ehrlich-stiftung.de

Editor: Joachim Pietzsch/Dr. Markus Bernards, Science Editor, PR & Communication Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: +49 (0) 69 798-12498, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, bernards@em.uni-frankfurt.de

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration – including theoretical physicists from Goethe University – has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, using data from observations taken in April 2018. The new images reveal a familiar ring the same size as the one observed in 2017. This bright ring surrounds a deep central depression, “the shadow of the black hole", as predicted by general relativity. Excitingly, the brightness peak of the ring has shifted by about 30º compared to the images from 2017, which is consistent with the theoretical understanding of variability from turbulent material around black holes. 

FRANKFURT. “A fundamental requirement of science is to be able to reproduce results," says Dr. Keiichi Asada, an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. “Confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a huge milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are looking at a black hole shadow and the material orbiting around it." 

Luciano Rezzolla, EHT executive board member and professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, emphasizes: "All predictions for the appearance of the black hole M87* that we made on the basis of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity can be confirmed with the second image of M87*. The brightness peak of the ring is also in the 'right' place, because we are looking at the emission from turbulent material in the accretion disk around this black hole at a certain inclination." This second image of M87* may not seem very spectacular to the public, says the theoretical physicist whose team at Goethe University has provided essential contributions to the theoretical modelling of the data: “However, for science, it is an extremely important confirmation. While the excitement in science obviously comes with the discovery, the confidence in science comes from the confirmation of previous results. Hence, the new image testifies that the analysis behind first image of a black hole was indeed correct and accurate." 

In 2017, the EHT took the first image of a black hole. This object, M87*, is the beating heart of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and lives 55 million light years away from Earth. The image of the black hole revealed a bright circular ring, brighter in the southern part of the ring. Further analysis of the data also revealed the structure of M87* in polarized light, giving us greater insight into the geometry of the magnetic field and the nature of the plasma around the black hole. 

The new era of black hole direct imaging, spearheaded by the extensive analysis of the 2017 observations of M87* opened a new window that let us investigate black hole astrophysics and allow us to test the theory of general relativity at a fundamental level. Our theoretical models tell us that the state of the material around M87* should be uncorrelated between 2017 and 2018. Thus, multiple observations of M87* will help us place independent constraints on the plasma and magnetic field structure around the black hole and help us disentangle the complicated astrophysics from the effects of general relativity. 

To help accomplish new and exciting science, the EHT is under continuous development. The Greenland Telescope joined the EHT for the first time in 2018, just five months after its construction was completed far above the Arctic Circle. This new telescope significantly improved the image fidelity of the EHT array, improving the coverage, particularly in the North-South direction. The Large Millimeter Telescope also participated for the first time with its full 50 m surface, greatly improving its sensitivity. The EHT array was also upgraded to observe in four frequency bands around 230 GHz, compared to only two bands in 2017. 

Repeated observations with an improved array are essential to demonstrate the robustness of our findings and strengthen our confidence in our results. In addition to the groundbreaking science, the EHT also serves as a technology testbed for cutting-edge developments in high-frequency radio interferometry. 

"Advancing scientific endeavors requires continuous enhancement in data quality and analysis techniques," said Rohan Dahale, a PhD candidate at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) in Spain. "The inclusion of the Greenland Telescope in our array filled critical gaps in our earth-sized telescope. The 2021, 2022, and the forthcoming 2024 observations witness improvements to the array, fueling our enthusiasm to push the frontiers of black hole astrophysics." 

The analysis of the 2018 data features eight independent imaging and modeling techniques, including methods used in the previous 2017 analysis of M87* and new ones developed from the collaboration's experience analyzing Sgr A*. 

The image of M87* taken in 2018 is remarkably similar to what we saw in 2017. We see a bright ring of the same size, with a dark central region and one side of the ring brighter than the other. The mass and distance of M87* will not appreciably increase throughout a human lifetime, so general relativity predicts that the ring diameter should stay the same from year to year. The stability of the measured diameter in the images from 2017 to 2018 robustly supports the conclusion that M87* is well described by general relativity. 

“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius is strongly dependent on only one quantity: its mass," said Dr. Nitika Yadlapalli Yurk, a former graduate student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), now a postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “Since M87* is not accreting material (which would increase its mass) at a rapid rate, general relativity tells us that its radius will remain fairly unchanged over human history. It's pretty exciting to see that our data confirm this prediction." 

While the size of the black hole shadow did not change between 2017 and 2018, the location of the brightest region around the ring did change significantly. The bright region rotated about 30º counterclockwise to settle in the bottom right part of the ring at about the 5 o'clock position. Historical observations of M87* with a less sensitive array and fewer telescopes also indicated that the shadow structure changes yearly (Wielgus 2020, ApJ, 901, 67) but with less precision. While the 2018 EHT array still cannot observe the jet emerging from M87*, the black hole spin axis predicted from the location of the brightest region around the ring is more consistent with the jet axis seen at other wavelengths. 

“The biggest change, that the brightness peak shifted around the ring, is actually something we predicted when we published the first results in 2019," said Dr. Britt Jeter, a postdoctoral fellow at Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. “While general relativity says the ring size should stay pretty fixed, the emission from the turbulent, messy accretion disk around the black hole will cause the brightest part of the ring to wobble around a common center. The amount of wobble we see over time is something we can use to test our theories for the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole." 

While all the EHT papers published so far have featured an analysis of our first observations in 2017, this result represents the first efforts to explore the many additional years of data we've collected. In addition to 2017 and 2018, the EHT conducted successful observations in 2021 and 2022 and is scheduled to observe in the first half of 2024. Each year, the EHT array has improved in some way, either through the addition of new telescopes, better hardware, or additional observing frequencies. Within the collaboration, we are working very hard to analyze all this data and are excited to show you more results in the future. 

More information
The EHT collaboration involves more than 300 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The international collaboration is working to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. Supported by considerable international investment, the EHT links existing telescopes using novel systems, creating a fundamentally new instrument with the highest angular resolving power that has yet been achieved. 

The individual telescopes involved are ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the IRAM NOEMA Observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), the Submillimeter Array (SMA), the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), the South Pole Telescope (SPT), the Kitt Peak Telescope, and the Greenland Telescope (GLT). Data were correlated at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) and MIT Haystack Observatory. The postprocessing was done within the collaboration by an international team at different institutions. 

The EHT consortium consists of 13 stakeholder institutes: the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Arizona, the University of Chicago, the East Asian Observatory, Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, Large Millimeter Telescope, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, MIT Haystack Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Radboud University, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 

Publication: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. The persistent shadow of the supermassive black hole of M 87. I. Observations, calibration, imaging, and analysis. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 18th January 2024, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347932 

Picture download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/148028548 

Caption: The first and second images of the black hole M87*: The diameter of the shadow enclosed by the ring is identical. As expected, the brightness distribution of the radiation emitted by the matter swirling around the black hole has shifted. Credit: EHT Collaboration 

Further Information:
Professor Luciano Rezzolla
Institute for Theoretical Physics
Goethe University Frankfurt
Phone: +49 (69) 798-47871
rezzolla@itp.uni-frankfurt.de
https://astro.uni-frankfurt.de/rezzolla/
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
Twitter/X: @goetheuni @ehtelescope

Editor: Dr. Markus Bernards, Science Editor, PR & Communication Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt, Tel: +49 (0) 69 798-12498, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, bernards@em.uni-frankfurt.de