This TED Talk features computer scientist and AI researcher Katie Bauman,

recorded live at TEDx Beacon Street, 2016.

So in the movie Interstellar, we get an up-close look at a supermassive black hole.

Set against a backdrop of bright gas, the black hole's massive gravitational pull bends light into a ring.

However, this isn't a real photograph, but a computer graphic rendering,

an artistic interpretation of what a black hole might look like.

A hundred years ago, Albert Einstein first published his theory of general relativity. In the years since then, scientists have provided a lot of evidence in support of it.

But one thing predicted from this theory, black holes still have not been directly observed.

Although we have some ideas to what a black hole might look like,

we've never actually taken a picture of one before.

However, you might be surprised to know that it may soon change.

We may be seeing our first picture of a black hole in the next couple years.

Getting this first picture will come down to an international team of scientists,

an Earth-sized telescope, and an algorithm that puts together the final picture.

Although I won't be able to show you a real picture of a black hole today,

I'd like to give you a brief glimpse into the effort involved in getting that first picture.

So my name is Katie Bowman, and I'm a PhD student at MIT.

I do research in a computer science lab that works on making computer see through images and video.

But although I'm not an astronomer, today I'd like to show you how I've been able to contribute to this exciting project.

So if you go out past the bright city lights tonight, you may just be lucky enough to see a stunning view of the Milky Way galaxy.

And if we could zoom past millions of stars,

26,000 light years towards the heart of the spiraling Milky Way,

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