We finally took a photo of a black hole

[MusicallyInspired]

Believe it or not, black holes have been theoretical until today. But Einstein has been proven correct again. After two years of setting up and taking readings with the Event Horizon Telescope (a telescope whose data is taken by 8 massive telescopes all around the world effectively rendering a "lens" as big as the entire planet) a photo of the super massive black hole of galaxy M87 was released. M87's black hole is the biggest one we know about being over 5 billion times larger than our sun. The EHT is also attempting to take a photo of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our own galaxy. This is beyond exciting! I have it on my FB history 2 years ago that they were starting this project so it's really cool to see the results finally!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/even ... fAWqnp-FgU

[Tawmis]

It's really exciting until the black hole sucks in our solar system.

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

No doubt the Aluminum Mallard is currently speeding towards it.

[Rath Darkblade]

I saw this on the morning news - very exciting indeed! And then, on the back of that ... Australian PM declares general election. Speaking of black holes - now I'll have to avoid the news for the next 5 weeks; it'll be all politics, sucking away all the news-people's attention like a black hole.

Anyway, turning serious for a moment ... I don't have a background in complex mathematics or physics, but I've read a few intermediate science books and even I'm aware that the artistic representations are a bit of a myth, really. What does a black hole look like? Does anyone know?

All I can say is, thank goodness it's so far away; I have read of what happens to a person when he hits the singularity, and it's not good at all.

[MusicallyInspired]

Actually, for a super massive black hole of this size (6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, I was wrong when I said 5 billion earlier), much like how Interstellar described it (which had major scientific consultation), a black hole of this size wouldn't cause "spaghettification" (yes, that's the actual scientific term). It has something to do with the Schwartzchild Radius. Anyway, you could actually cross the event horizon and survive. But you'd never get out and eventually you'd die anyway. Smaller black holes would stretched and tear you apart though before event crossing the event horizon.

According to theory, anyway.

Many people are just making fun of this photo being so blurry and don't understand what it means and just making Eye of Sauron jokes, which are funny and all, but we could not prove the existence of black holes before now. It was all a theory. And not only did we predict and find what we were predicting but it's pretty much exactly as we expected it to be! I cannot overstate how incredible that is. And it only goes up from here. Imagine if we can get some telescopes onto satellites orbiting Earth with an even bigger "lens" than the size of the planet and take an even better picture of this black hole! April 10th, 2019 was an incredible day and I can say I was there! This is history!

I'm so freaked and geeking out right now lol!

[Collector]

much like how Interstellar described it (which had major scientific consultation)

Interstellar didn't just have scientific consultation. It was co-conceived by Kip Stephen, a theoretical physicist, who also knew Carl Sagan. In fact the other person involved with Interstellar concept was his wife, introduced to him by Sagan. [/trivia]

Whether or not one would be ripped apart by tidal forces is a little moot because of the dilation of time at the event horizon means that it it would take an infinite amount of time to do so.

April 10th, 2019 was an incredible day and I can say I was there! This is history!

Absolutely!

[Tawmis]

Here's more about that... She apparently did a Ted Talk.

[Collector]

I was going to post the first image. If I had done what she had just done I would be giggling, too. A scientist is one who never loses their childlike sense of wonder.

[Tawmis]

I was going to post the first image. If I had done what she had just done I would be giggling, too. A scientist is one who never loses their childlike sense of wonder.

She looks like she's 12 in that giggling/happy photo. It's so freaking cute. <3

[MusicallyInspired]

Whether or not one would be ripped apart by tidal forces is a little moot because of the dilation of time at the event horizon means that it it would take an infinite amount of time to do so.

Not by your perspective if you were the one being pulled in.

[notbobsmith]

I love stuff like this. I'm torn between this and LIGO as to which is a more impressive technical feat. But then a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Tawmis]

I love stuff like this. I'm torn between this and LIGO as to which is a more impressive technical feat. But then a picture is worth a thousand words.

I love LEGOs too... I mean, you can build... wait... you said LIGO...

[Qbix]

It's pretty cool!

[Rath Darkblade]

It's incredibly cool. When I was a kid, I was introduced to astronomy by reading Asimov's "Quasars, Pulsars, and Black Holes", and that fired my imagination and made me want to read more about science. So the next book I was given to read?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (in Hebrew, no less), which I didn't really understand. (It's a bit challenging for a 12 year old, especially as the translation lost so much!) I didn't get to read it again until nearly 15 years later.

But I always liked reading anything by Asimov, especially his short stories and his literary criticisms and his mysteries. Oh, boy. Now I'm the one geeking out! So I'll shut up now.

But wait - what's this I see?
Isaac Asimov's Library of the Universe 28 Volume Set (and in hardcover, no less!) being sold for $50. Oh, well... I'm sure someone would snap it up before I do. And I've run out of shelf-space, anyway...

But as for the black hole - wow. Wooooooow. Something I read about in an Asimov book, 30 years ago, as an interesting theoretical novelty, is proven true. I can't stop saying it: wow! And now I'm geeking out even more, so I'll shut up now.

[Datadog]

They've named the black hole 'Powehi', a Hawaiian word meaning 'adorned fathomless dark creation'. Good name, considering how few words we've invented to describe such a thing.

And it only goes up from here. Imagine if we can get some telescopes onto satellites orbiting Earth with an even bigger "lens" than the size of the planet and take an even better picture of this black hole!

I was thinking the same thing. It took telescopes all over the globe just to get a resolution this good. We figuratively turned our own world into a giant telescope just to see it. Expanding the radius into orbit with even more telescopes, we could see even more.