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Algorithms rule … the galaxy

We’ve said it many times: algorithms rule the world. But since yesterday we can also say that they rule the galaxy.

Already in 2016 researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the MIT Haystack Observatory were working on a new algorithm that could help astronomers produce the first image of a black hole.

The algorithm stitches together data collected from radio telescopes scattered around the globe, under the auspices of an international collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope.

What a great result for the researchers … and what a great potential addition to the Algorithm Hall of Fame.