So earth will be sucked down this black hole and shredded how many days from now?
Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
111–120 of 329 posts
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#112ithought this was old news from couple of years ago, did i miss something?
The previous image was of M87.[1] The new one is of Sagittarius A*, which is the black hole at the center of our own galaxy. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/black-hole-i...
I also remember this were photos of the milky ways black hole several years ago, am mixing two memories or did news articles then also talk about Sagittarius A*?
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#113For those wondering if we could get sharper images with JWST, here’s the previously imaged black hole (same angular size as our own) compared to a single pixel from Hubble’s wide field camera 3: https://twitter.com/alex_parker/status/1116070667068170240?s... JWST will have smaller “pixels” but is in the same ballpark.
How sharp do we expect an infinite-res picture to be?
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gravitational physicist here. Every time we look in a new place and see that GR still works, it is pretty amazing. Part of this is the fact that everyone in the field works very hard to find a crack in GR's armor, and so far it has resisted everyone. The other part is that GR has a romantic beauty to it, both in structure and in predictions. Each time GR matches reality in a new context, the feeling is akin to watchi…
It seems the common expectation is that GR is more likely to be the theory that needs to be modified the most - or more or less tossed out and replaced with a quantum theory of gravity. Is it possible that GR is just "right" and QM needs to be modified to fit into it?
We can't even measure the gravitational constant to more than about 4.5 significant digits. Most other natural constants are in the 7-12 digit range and improving along with our technology. Measurement of big G hasn't convincingly progressed since the vacuum tube era.
We have a lot more to learn about gravity, especially at laboratory scale and smaller.
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#115For those wondering if we could get sharper images with JWST, here’s the previously imaged black hole (same angular size as our own) compared to a single pixel from Hubble’s wide field camera 3: https://twitter.com/alex_parker/status/1116070667068170240?s... JWST will have smaller “pixels” but is in the same ballpark.
While it won't be able to image more sharply on its own, JWST can still help to constrain certain factors in their modeling, thus obtaining better images.
See, e.g., https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/phase2-public/2235.pdf (although this was written when there was no image, certainly it would still be useful).
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#116For those wondering if we could get sharper images with JWST, here’s the previously imaged black hole (same angular size as our own) compared to a single pixel from Hubble’s wide field camera 3: https://twitter.com/alex_parker/status/1116070667068170240?s... JWST will have smaller “pixels” but is in the same ballpark.
And here you see the new picture compared with the 2019 picture of Messier 87:
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems the common expectation is that GR is more likely to be the theory that needs to be modified the most - or more or less tossed out and replaced with a quantum theory of gravity. Is it possible that GR is just "right" and QM needs to be modified to fit into it?
The most likely explanation is that we have no clue, just like every other point in history. Science is always new. Everyone is different, but most scientists seek areas where experiment doesn’t match the predictions. It’s the only way we learn. One such instance is the W Boson Anomaly: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdpwrmoj/?k=1 If the equations were right, the experimental error would be zero (modulo uncertainty bars). In…
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Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#118No post body was provided.
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#119One of the findings they announced at the press conference is that the spin of the black hole is not aligned with the galactic plane but is tilted "towards us" so that it is viewed face on. How unexpected is that?
For quasars, don't the beams shoot out of the poles? Let's hope our nearby buddy doesn't become that active.
The "us" in "let us" are humans that are alive 30,000 years after a hypothetical quasar starts at SgrA*. The image would look realtime to us. Just weird relativity things.
Re: Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems the common expectation is that GR is more likely to be the theory that needs to be modified the most - or more or less tossed out and replaced with a quantum theory of gravity. Is it possible that GR is just "right" and QM needs to be modified to fit into it?
The most likely explanation is that we have no clue, just like every other point in history. Science is always new. Everyone is different, but most scientists seek areas where experiment doesn’t match the predictions. It’s the only way we learn. One such instance is the W Boson Anomaly: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdpwrmoj/?k=1 If the equations were right, the experimental error would be zero (modulo uncertainty bars). In…
> Get ready for TikTok to become the new Wikipedia within a decade.
I've also learned a lot from TikTok, where short form content has led to 30 second tutorials that leave 30 minute YouTube equivalents in their dust. My learning topics include smartphone photography, wood working, and knots. I was also surprised at how informative it can be.
It'll be interesting to see how TikTok's content moderation compares against Wikipedia. We won't have notability wars, but there is massive scope for disinformation and banal wrongness.