The Event Horizon Telescope - photographing a black hole

[jandl100]

Big "groundbreaking" announcement today from the international project whose goal is to provide the first ever direct images of a super-massive black hole.

Handy 4 minute background video ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=253&v=hMsNd1W_lmE

Basically, a number of radio telescopes around the world operating at a wavelength of 1mm have been meshed together to create a telescope the size of our planet. With this, sufficient detail should be available to provide an image of what is happening around the central black holes in our own galaxy and also the giant galaxy M87.

Could be amazing. :wow: :)

Watch the press conference today live at 1300 GMT. https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/

[struth]

Read that the other day Jerry. Think it was live science

[jandl100]

Wow.

https://e3.365dm.com/19/04/1600x900/skynews-black-hole_4634865.jpg?bypass-service-worker&20190410142309

[jandl100]

... that image is of the Super Massive Black Hole at the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy M87.

https://www.sciencealert.com/event-horizon-telescope-first-image-photo-of-black-hole-news?fbclid=IwAR0Vi2FGtgJpUC35CWdCt2UPCz1ylnQF-CkpNLnJ1UJFTYNfMK-AvTQ1Wkw

As far as I know an image of the SMBH at the centre of our galaxy hasn't yet been released.
Both were the subject of the EHT project.

Here's a photo of the whole of the M87 galaxy taken at optical wavelengths.

http://pages.astronomy.ua.edu/gifimages/M87BVR-log-2m.png

There is a relativistic jet of material coming out of the galaxy - at about the 2 o'clock position on the photo - probably expelled by the central black hole.

[scotty38]

And what's more Einstein is still sleeping soundly...

[jandl100]

Yes, it looks like it.
Much detailed analysis to do I am sure, to check the images against the precise predictions of general relativity.
But certainly looks good so far.

Shame Stephen Hawking didn't live quite long enough to see this.

[Audio Al]

I have seen this before >
.
.
.
.
.https://oimg.photobucket.com/albums/v240/bigboobs/smiling-happy-face-emoji.jpg (https://smg.photobucket.com/user/bigboobs/media/smiling-happy-face-emoji.jpg.html)

[Firebottle]

Shame Stephen Hawking didn't live quite long enough to see this.

That is a shame as he had so much input into understanding black holes and the event horizon.

[jandl100]

So, what are we seeing in that black hole image?

If you want your brain well and truly scrambled, watch this 9 minute video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3PAX04C4B3BKN2XOpYUeVwJI5AHSdNAlTEtyurk NDHh6Wo2lXBkFWV_9w

[Audio Al]

But = I think I will carry on seeing the back of my head when in the barbers chair , Its a lot less effort :D

This Science is amazing :) Love it

[jandl100]

Another interesting article, by one of the EHT team, which delves more deeply into the scientific analysis of the images of the black hole.

https://astrobites.org/2019/04/11/the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/

Amongst other fascinating items, it hints at variability of the black hole environment over the period of a week that the data was gathered.

Figure 2 (Figure 11 in Paper IV): Fiducial images on each day of observations from each imaging pipeline. A consistent asymmetric ring feature is recovered by all pipelines on all days, with hints of time variability along the brighter southern edge.

https://astrobites.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/EHT_Algorithms-768x531.png

[Primalsea]

I saw the images yesterday and a colleague said that he thought it must be a joke of some kind as the image wasn’t very exciting :eek:

[walpurgis]

I saw the images yesterday and a colleague said that he thought it must be a joke of some kind as the image wasn’t very exciting :eek:

He was right.

[ianlenco]

There was an interesting programme on BBC4 about this last night - no doubt available on iPlayer. Got me a bit confused as they spent a long time fiddling with the data until it produced a consistent image. Left me wondering if different algorithms would produce different images.

[mikeyb]

Mmmmmm Doughnuts [emoji3526]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190411/968a66674e13dd6f7315d8632e189c43.jpg

[Haselsh1]

It reminded me of an out of focus bagel.

;)

[struth]

It reminded me of an out of focus bagel.

;)

reminded me of the ring of fire :eek:

[Haselsh1]

reminded me of the ring of fire :eek:

:lol:

[tapid]

What did John say. THE RING OF FIRE.. the ring of fire. Thats a drift black holes to doughnuts

[mikeyb]

Joking aside, the figures quoted are incredible, amazing really

[emoji50]

[Ian7633]

http://i63.tinypic.com/2w682vq.jpg

[Primalsea]

I would have thought that all hifi enthusiasts would be finding this discovery incredibly interesting and relevant. I’m sure that all of us have experienced our money passing through the event horizon when buying that new bit of kit that would supposedly fix all of our hifi woes.

[jandl100]

Scientific research in action

Katie Bouman - she led the development of the data processing algorithm.

''Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed.''

https://scontent.flhr2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/56567263_10213321822537969_4520592957534896128_n.j pg?_nc_cat=1&_nc_eui2=AeHh-fPZct4g_qj3J1HpdpkDwgF26DypKOtx0axfUmRaV2J1yN0F9So L4CweScfVC02IHXMAQV8Bo2f2Cz4BmeATYGZPCdvy9kSnvXO33 MyyEw&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr2-1.fna&oh=b5791df854c48d754e81cee66020275f&oe=5D4A3957

[Primalsea]

It must be a fake, if they used Apple computers...

[ianlenco]

http://i63.tinypic.com/2w682vq.jpg

:lol: Poor cat, its black hole has burnt the fur off its legs.

[Len Co]

Great album cover - the cat version I mean.

[Ian7633]

:lol: Poor cat, its black hole has burnt the fur off its legs.

Whiskers pilchard vindaloo......

[jandl100]

I saw the images yesterday and a colleague said that he thought it must be a joke of some kind as the image wasn’t very exciting :eek:

https://i.imgflip.com/2y9tl8.jpg

[Firebottle]

Just one of the simple things that impresses me is the reception of millimeter wavelength radio signals over the distance involved.

The frequency is 230GHz, that's 230 thousand million cycles per second in old speak for those that don't know.

[jandl100]

The frequency is 230GHz, that's 230 thousand million cycles per second in old speak for those that don't know.

You'd definitely need a supertweeter for that. :D

[Primalsea]

But was it 16, 24 or 32 bit?

[jandl100]

It's a 6.5 billion solar mass black hole - so at least 64 bits, I reckon.

[Primalsea]

The dynamic range must be fantastic...

[scotty38]

Just one of the simple things that impresses me is the reception of millimeter wavelength radio signals over the distance involved.


And it's one of the reasons the telescopes are in dry places as moisture interrupts the waves. They then have to wait for each site to have optimum weather conditions at the same time....

[Audio Al]

Imagine the size of the mains power cable :eek:

[Ian7633]

Imagine the size of the mains power cable :eek:

No doubt there would be someone out there offering an upgrade with a fancy posh fuse.

[Primalsea]

Apparently when they viewed the image on a 8K TV using an expensive HDMI cable it was just like being there at the live event.

[jandl100]

Interesting article and graphics about why a black hole looks the way it does.
Its gravity distorts the appearance of a relatively flat accretion disc into a complex halo.

https://phys.org/news/2019-09-nasa-visualization-black-hole-warped.html?fbclid=IwAR1wnnTRqEgyiRboefOivcSWop-TJOYOnfu614H6xahmBpXZsQXHND9iRNw

https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800/2019/1-nasavisualiz.jpg

[Audio Al]

So that explains the empty void in my bonce :D

[Audio Al]

Apparently when they viewed the image on a 8K TV using an expensive HDMI cable it was just like being there at the live event.

:lol:

Was it also jaw dropping , Night and day :D