Unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole [video]

Post by albedoa » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 12:26 AM UTC

wallace_f wrote: post #210

m87 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem to be that accurate, as expectation was for it to have smoother photo sphere, but it has irregular bulges (5 of them). I think they discussed it briefly in the press conference as well. It would be interesting to see if this would change understanding of general relativity and may be give a hint for a theory of quantum gravity.

What bothered me more about the video is that of you watch the whole thing, he ends up talking about some theory which leads to another type of image prediction. He never actually explains why he chose to go with the former prediction rather than the latter.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 12:43 AM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #408

nazgul17 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on this?

What they're saying is that we had to send a camera away from the Earth (in a rocket) in order to photograph it properly, and similarly you'd need to send a camera away from our galaxy (in a biiiig rocket) in order to be able to photograph it properly.

Post by Neeek » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 12:53 AM UTC

usaphp wrote: post #415

tempestn wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The black hole itself is spherical, but the light we're seeing around it isn't projected by the event horizon; rather, it's light from behind/around the black hole that isn't blocked. This video explains in much more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo

But if it's spherical, should not the light be all around it?

Post by darkhorn » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 1:02 AM UTC

koheripbal wrote: post #375

GuB-42 wrote: post #223

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Smart move by Veritasium, making a video commenting the news just before the news actually happens. Time works in weird ways around black holes. Anyways, it is a good one. So is that channel in general. It is also a good video if you just watched Interstellar, because it also explains why the black hole looks the way it does in the movie. Note that the movie black hole rendering is slightly incorrect for artistic rea…

It's too bad we cannot see the accretion disk edge-on as in the video. That would have made it a perfect prediction. Maybe it's so thin that it's overwhelmed by the projections of the top and bottom of the back side of the disk.

Post by O_H_E » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 1:09 AM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #199

O_H_E wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 55 million light years didn't he correct himself and said kilometers

He corrected himself to say 500 billion billion kilometers after mistakingly saying light years. I haven't done the math, but I believe that roughly equates to 55 million light years.