In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, we’re looking in more depth at the biggest astrophysics story of the year so far – the first images of a black hole, which made headlines around the world last week. Physics World’s Hamish Johnston reports from Colorado, where he caught up with black-hole experts for a chat about the recent triumph of the Event Horizon Telescope. That’s the global network of telescopes that revealed those incredible first pictures of the black hole at the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy, 55 million light-years from Earth.

We’re also talking about some more earthly matters, as James Dacey and Liz Kalaugher have been in Vienna at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union. They discuss some of the key themes from that meeting, including plastics problem, the unexpected radiation threat relating to glaciers, and why the search for clues of life on Mars just got a bit more complicated.

If you enjoy what you hear you can subscribe via Apple podcasts, or your chosen podcast app. We’re also available now on Spotify.