Event Horizon - Black Hole Live

Event Horizon - Black Hole Live

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Discussion

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,856 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Live coverage of revelation of first ever genuine image of a black hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnJi0Jy692w


p1stonhead

27,203 posts

174 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Here it is!

Amazed to have been alive to see this first image. The mass of 6.5 billion suns! 40 billion KM across! Mind boggling.

“We are giving humanity its first view of a black hole -- a one-way door out of our universe" said EHT project director Sheperd S. Doeleman of the Center for Astrophysics

What a great quote.





Edited by p1stonhead on Wednesday 10th April 14:33

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,856 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
It's at the centre of this galaxy - M87



Although it doesn't look that spectacular, it's been known for a while that there is a jet being shot out from the centre of this galaxy - a strong indicator that there was a black hole lurking at the centre -



It is over 53 million light years from earth.

AshVX220

5,933 posts

197 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
It's at the centre of this galaxy - M87



Although it doesn't look that spectacular, it's been known for a while that there is a jet being shot out from the centre of this galaxy - a strong indicator that there was a black hole lurking at the centre -



It is over 53 million light years from earth.
Is that lower image CGI, or an actual photo? CGI surely?

ReverendCounter

6,087 posts

183 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Holy spaceballs - amazing - out of the history of mankind we're the first to see this direct image rather than effects of black holes. Imagine where we're going to be in 25-30 years time.

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Just been reading about this on the BBC website. It’s absolutely mind boggling, the huge numbers mentioned.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,856 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
AshVX220 said:
Is that lower image CGI, or an actual photo? CGI surely?
Genuine - it's from the Hubble Space Telescope.

(By galactic jet standards, it's not that spectacular).

Piha

7,150 posts

99 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Such a wonderful image.

It is amazing what can be done when mankind works together. With the emergence of extreme left & right wing politics, this project is a welcome relief to the disorder we have today.

julian64

14,317 posts

261 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
I'm underwhelmed, but probably because I'm a bit stupid.

What am I actually looking at that is a black hole and not the effect or it. Is this hawking radiation converted into the visible spectrum?
I don't understand

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,856 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
julian64 said:
I'm underwhelmed, but probably because I'm a bit stupid.

What am I actually looking at that is a black hole and not the effect or it. Is this hawking radiation converted into the visible spectrum?
I don't understand
Yes - you are actually looking at the black hole itself which is surrounded by glowing radiation of matter as it spirals down into it.

The significant aspect of this image is that it is the first ever time we have seen this for real - although it has been speculated about for decades and we have seen countless artist impressions of what such a situation might look like.

Now we have seen the real thing.

Terminator X

16,332 posts

211 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Whilst I appreciate that you'd get crushed etc if you could get through what is on the other side of a black hole eg where does all the light go?

TX.

p1stonhead

27,203 posts

174 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
julian64 said:
I'm underwhelmed, but probably because I'm a bit stupid.

What am I actually looking at that is a black hole and not the effect or it. Is this hawking radiation converted into the visible spectrum?
I don't understand
Yes - you are actually looking at the black hole itself which is surrounded by glowing radiation of matter as it spirals down into it.

The significant aspect of this image is that it is the first ever time we have seen this for real - although it has been speculated about for decades and we have seen countless artist impressions of what such a situation might look like.

Now we have seen the real thing.
Whats amazing to me is how close our simulations apparently were. Spot on according to one person I saw speaking. And Einstein predicted this a century ago!?

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,856 posts

272 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
That's the mystery.


Piha

7,150 posts

99 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Terminator X said:
Whilst I appreciate that you'd get crushed etc if you could get through what is on the other side of a black hole eg where does all the light go?

TX.
I am led to believe that a black hole isn't really a hole. It is speculated there is a solid mass at the centre. Hopefully someone will be able to explain this much better than me (and that shouldn't be difficult...).

anonymous-user

61 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Terminator X said:
Whilst I appreciate that you'd get crushed etc if you could get through what is on the other side of a black hole eg where does all the light go?

TX.
Nobody knows.

julian64

14,317 posts

261 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Terminator X said:
Whilst I appreciate that you'd get crushed etc if you could get through what is on the other side of a black hole eg where does all the light go?

TX.
Okay stupid talking here so you will have to take everything I say with a pinch of salt. If you are a dreamer you talk about other universes. If you are a realist you see it as natures quantum trash compactor and recycler, and a very necessary part of how matter can be changed to be more useful

There is so much we don't know about quantum physics that its like a monkey looking at a TV. When and if we do finally understand quantum physics then we won't be as amazed as the monkey anymore

Dan_1981

17,548 posts

206 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Where we're going..... we don't need eyes!

budgie smuggler

5,538 posts

166 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
julian64 said:
I'm underwhelmed, but probably because I'm a bit stupid.

What am I actually looking at that is a black hole and not the effect or it. Is this hawking radiation converted into the visible spectrum?
I don't understand
Watch this video, despite being from before the unveiling, it explains what you're seeing pretty well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo

rsbmw

3,466 posts

112 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
Technically we're looking at how that black hole looked 53 million years ago. Fashion might have changed since then in the astro world.

Tim330

1,176 posts

219 months

Wednesday 10th April 2019
quotequote all
I found the energy of the jet hard to comprehend.

"The relativistic jet of matter emerging from the core extends at least 1.5 kiloparsecs (5,000 light-years) from the nucleus and consists of matter ejected from a supermassive black hole. The jet is highly collimated, appearing constrained to an angle of 60° within 0.8 parsecs (2.6 light-years) of the core, to about 16° at two parsecs (6.5 light-years), and to 6–7° at twelve parsecs (39 light-years).[89] Its base has the diameter of 5.5 ± 0.4 Schwarzschild radii, and is probably powered by a prograde accretion disk around a spinning supermassive black hole.[89] The German-American astronomer Walter Baade found that light from the jet was plane polarized, which suggests that the energy is generated by the acceleration of electrons moving at relativistic velocities in a magnetic field. The total energy of these electrons is estimated at 5.1 × 10^56 ergs[90] (5.1 × 10^49 joules or 3.2 × 10^68 eV). This is roughly 10^13 times the energy produced by the Milky Way in one second, which is estimated at 5 × 10^36 joules.[91]"