Black Hole - Smile For The Camera!

[ucfgrad93]

The world, it seems, is soon to see the first picture of a black hole.

On Wednesday, astronomers across the globe will hold "six major press conferences" simultaneously to announce the first results of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which was designed precisely for that purpose.

Can't wait to see this!

https://www.france24.com/en/20190406-scientists-set-unveil-first-picture-black-hole

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I'm definitely interested in this. Looking forward to it.

 

[S.B.G]

Here it is.

Very cool indeed.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/10/711723383/watch-earth-gets-its-first-look-at-a-black-hole

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

So cool. Derek from Veritasium on YouTube does a good job explaining how this photo works, physics-wise.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Awesome!

 

[S.B.G]

So cool. Derek from Veritasium on YouTube does a good job explaining how this photo works, physics-wise.

That was a very good explanation video.

 

[ericgtr12]

Very cool breakthrough.

Researchers at the Event Horizon Telescope project say they were able to create an image of a black hole by using a network of eight radio telescopes to create "a virtual telescope dish as large as the Earth itself," the National Science Foundation says.

Sort of puts my 24 megapixel SLR camera into perspective

 

[chown33]

Here it is.

Very cool indeed.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/10/711723383/watch-earth-gets-its-first-look-at-a-black-hole

View attachment 831484

That looks surprisingly like a glazed donut.

 

[ericgtr12]

That looks surprisingly like a glazed donut.

Or eerily like the eye or Sauron.

 

[MacDawg]

That looks surprisingly like a glazed donut.

Or eerily like the eye or Sauron.

*gleaned from Twitter

 

[ericgtr12]

Lifted from Reddit (tons of great memes going around!)

 

[MacNut]

This is a great achievement considering a few years ago we were still searching for proof black holes existed.

 

[AngerDanger]

Some perspective provided by XKCD:

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

If you gaze long enough into it, it gazes into you.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Katie Bouman reacted modestly to her sudden celebrity status this week, but the scientist whose graduate school work helped lead to the first image of a black hole Wednesday, is getting her due.

Bouman, who is an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences at Cal Tech, created an algorithm during grad school at MIT that made the image possible.

The 29-year-old worked with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the MIT Haystack Observatory and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for the last several years, leading to the development of the algorithm.

The image of the black hole was captured from 55 million lights years away (one light year is equal to six trillion miles) in galaxy Messier 87.

Nicely done, Ms. Bouman!

https://www.foxnews.com/science/kat...ind-first-real-image-of-black-hole-goes-viral

 

[ericgtr12]

Some perspective provided by XKCD:

Wow, it's much smaller than I would've thought. Not that I had any real perspective other than an assumption.

 

[Doctor Q]

I want to see if it's true that you can stand at the radius of the photon sphere and see the back of your head. I'm driving there right now to check it out. That way I can see if it's time for a haircut.

 

[rhett7660]

Some perspective provided by XKCD:

Holy smokes... that is one rather large hole...hole...hoooole....

 

[Doctor Q]

In 2019 (see post above) I promised to visit a black hole. I'm back now, but my iPhone snapshots aren't that great.

I suggest watching this newly released NASA visualization instead. It simulates what a camera, traveling at 60% the speed of light, would see as it approached and passed through the accretion disk, photon ring, and event horizon. It took NASA 5 days to create this visualization using their "Discovery" supercomputer.

 

[Rafterman]

A black hole - what my wallet is when Apple announces new products.