Google Creates Doodle to Celebrate Very First Image of Black Hole Released

Following the release of the first-ever photo of a black hole on Wednesday, Google reacted quickly and created a doodle to honor the groundbreaking image. By Wednesday evening, an animated doodle had been added to the search engine's home page.

Scientists announced the black-hole news in a live conference, and the image of the cosmic force, captured and first shared by the Event Horizon Telescope project, quickly made the rounds on social media and several news sites. Scientists had trained telescopes on the black hole from around the globe to create an image sharp enough to reveal new information.

The Google doodle includes the "Google" letters as usual, but an animated version of the black hole photo sits in the midst of the letters, pulling them into it as they disappear, leaving a dark blue sky in their place before the letters reappear and the animation starts all over again.

A Google doodler named Nate Swinehart created the animated logo. He came up with the idea on his way to work Wednesday morning, following the announcement and the release of the photo, according to Google. He sketched the initial idea for the doodle in the car, describing how the letters would move.

Swinehart has made other "live" doodles for Google, including those about the seven exoplanets found in 2017 and the evidence of water on Mars in 2015.

"These achievements are incredible, inspiring and often mind-boggling... It's a huge opportunity as an artist to take the home page space and make something small and charming that piques people's interest in the discovery," Swinehart said.

The black hole doodle appeared on home pages across the world, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia and parts of Europe, Africa, South and Central America.

Google's team of doodlers frequently celebrates events, anniversaries and birthdays of important people in history by creating images and graphics for its home page.

It was unclear how long Google will keep the black hole doodle on its site.

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About the writer


Nina was a breaking news reporter. She previously worked at Business Insider, The Boston Globe, and Boston.com.

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