The Black Hole Photo Was Created with the Help of a 29-Year-Old Female Scientist, Because Who Run the World?!

The first-ever image of a black hole went viral this week (and inspired a variety of memes, our favorite being Game of Thrones-related, of course). This marks a massive feat for science, since the gravity around a black hole is so strong it even sucks in visible light, and this particular black hole is 54 million light-years away.

Therefore, we've never seen a photo of a black hole before...until now. And we have 29-year-old computer scientist Katie Bouman to thank for ushering in a new era of astrophysics. NBD.

According to CNN, M.I.T. computer science grad student Bouman helped develop an algorithm for the imaging method used to capture the photo. A team of senior scientists also worked on the team, too. In total, Bouman was one of 200 researchers on the Event Horizon Telescope team that imaged the first black hole ever seen by humanity, nearly 100 years after Einstein predicted as much with his general theory of relativity.

While Bouman was quick to point out she wasn't the only researcher on the project (about 40 women were on the team of 200 scientists and also deserve serious recognition), the image of her excitement over the discovery has gone viral.