The Black Hole Explorer
Tracing the Edge of the Universe
The Black Hole Explorer is a new mission that will discover and measure a black hole’s photon ring, capturing light that has orbited a black hole
BHEX will extend the Event Horizon Telescope into space, producing the sharpest images in the history of astronomy
The Photon Ring
Black hole images are composed of a series of ever sharper photon rings, produced from light that has orbited the black hole increasingly more times before escaping
The properties of the black hole are imprinted on the size and shape of the photon ring, allowing us to directly study whether supermassive black holes are spinning
Building a New Mission
The BHEX team includes leading scientists and engineers from across the world.
We have been developing the BHEX concept since 2019 and will propose it as a NASA Small Explorers Mission in 2025.
We plan to launch BHEX in 2031.
Technical and concept studies for BHEX have been supported by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, by the Internal Research and Development (IRAD) program at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, by the University of Arizona, and by the ULVAC-Hayashi Seed Fund from the MIT-Japan Program at MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI).
BHEX is supported by initial funding from Fred Ehrsam. BHEX is funded in part by generous support from Mr. Michael Tuteur and Amy Tuteur, MD. We are grateful for advice and support from Ivan Selin.
