Not long ago, black holes and planets around other stars were fantastical, but not things with direct evidence about their existence. Trying to “fish” for evidence led to the cosmic equivalent of empty nets. But in February 2016, members of the Laser Interferometer Gravitation-Wave Observatory, jointly operated by staff from Cal Tech and MIT at locations in Washington and Louisiana, published data about the first detection of gravitational waves. Since then, dozens of comparable signals have been collected, attributed to black hole collisions. By 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope provided data to create an image of a black hole at the center of a nearby galaxy. In May 2022, an equally stunning image of a black hole in our own galaxy was published. 

Almighty and everlasting God, as we probe the mysteries of your creation, grant that we may come to know you more truly, and more surely fulfill our role in your eternal purpose.*

*From “Prayer for Knowledge of God’s Creation,” The Book of Common Prayer, Page 827.Image credit: Aurore Simmonet (Sonoma State University), Illustration of the first gravitational wave event observed by LIGO, https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/image/159