Reproducibility of the First Image of a Black Hole in the Galaxy M87 From the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

This article presents an interdisciplinary effort to develop and share sustainable knowledge necessary to analyze, understand, and use published scientific results to advance reproducibility in multimessenger astrophysics. Specifically, we target the breakthrough work associated with generating the first image of a black hole, called M87. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration computed the image. Based on the artifacts made available by the EHT, we deliver documentation, code, and a computational environment to reproduce the first image of a black hole. Our deliverables support discovery in multimessenger astrophysics by providing all of the necessary tools for generalizing methods and findings from the EHT use case. Challenges encountered during the reproducibility of EHT results are reported. Our effort results in an open source, containerized software package that enables the public to reproduce the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87.