英語聽力：黑洞吞噬—11

Just as I arrived at UCLA with my first faculty position, everything was falling into place in terms of the ability to answer this question at the centre of our galaxy. The telescopes were getting bigger so you had the due ability to see fine details. We had an explosion in infrared technology, which meant that we could detect the kind of light that the stars emit that you could actually see here on earth, get through all light dust.

The challenge was developing a telescope capable of overcoming the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere. Using lasers and specially developed software, Ghez developed a telescope that made constant adjustments to tune out atmospheric distortion.

We had a huge amount of skepticism. No one had ever done this. But as I told my students, “Never take no for an answer”, so you will find somebody that will help you out, use some telescope time and let you do a proof of concept to show that, yes, this technology will work. And it's freshman physics that tells you that if the technology works you should be able to see something if it isn't in the black hole.

With her new telescope, the final obstacle to see into the centre of our galaxy had been removed. It was now possible to see an unprecedented detail right into the area where the black hole was believed to be hiding.