Chris Anderson: Shep, thank you so much for coming.
I think your plane landed literally two hours ago in Vancouver.
Such a treat to have you.
So, talk us through how do you get from Einstein's equation to a black hole?
Sheperd Doeleman: Over 100 years ago, Einstein came up with this geometric theory of gravity which deforms space-time.
So, matter deforms space-time, and then space-time tells matter in turn how to move around it.
And you can get enough matter into a small enough region that it punctures space-time, and that even light can't escape, the force of gravity keeps even light inside.
CA: And so, before that, the reason the Earth moves around the Sun is not because the Sun is pulling the Earth as we think, but it's literally changed the shape of space so that we just sort of fall around the Sun.
SD: Exactly, the geometry of space-time tells the Earth how to move around the Sun.
You're almost seeing a black hole puncture through space-time, and when it goes so deeply in, then there's a point at which light orbits the black hole.
