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Astronomers reveal first image of a black hole

27 Comments
By SETH BORENSTEIN

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27 Comments
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Amazing image! That scientists from 20 nations co-operated on the project makes it even more amazing.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Too cool. I want to know what's on the other side.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Makes you feel good to know that there are people with that kind of drive and passion that channel it into something bigger than themselves that has nothing to do anything other than the pure pursuit of knowledge and curiosity.

Some people have religion, and that's fine, but personally, there is no better way to view the Divine than to study it without expectation and full of humility, and be purely astounded and delighted by what you find.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

The black hole is about 6 billion times the mass of our sun and is in a galaxy called M87. Its "event horizon" — the precipice, or point of no return where light and matter get sucked inexorably into the hole — is as big as our entire solar system.

gulp

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Absolutely amazing. That would indeed deserve a Nobel.

I saw another picture first this morning from NASA, it's not as close, but equally beautiful :

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/black-hole-image-makes-history/

8 ( +8 / -0 )

deadbeatlesToday  08:52 am JST

that WE, are on the other side of a black hole.

Actually this has been talked about for more than a decade.

We still do not have a clue what goes on beyond the event horizon since our best theories breaks down at that point.

My speculation beyond the event horizon is that it is a point with no spacial dimensions and based on the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics the location of that point can not be defined within the sphere of the event horizon.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Amazing how 20 different countries can do this! Well done.

pity 20 different countries can’t get together and alleviate war, famine, antibiotic resistance, global warming...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Absolutely stunning photo! One of the signature achievements of our time on a similar level to the detection of gravitational waves a few years ago.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The picture does make sense. Ultimately light will not even have the ability to escape a Black Hole's gravity. So what we might be seeing is light escaping from objects that have not yet impacted the black hole itself. Therefore light around a black center.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Stunning. Anyone want to go inside?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So what we might be seeing is light escaping from objects that have not yet impacted the black hole itself. Therefore light around a black center.

It's called the accretion disk. Most of the light you see comes from behind the black hole through gravitational lensing predicted by Einstein through general relativity.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

50 to 60 million for that?

And shouldn't it be called a "black ball", not a "black hole", since it's technically not a hole but a ball. If it was hole, it should send you off into another dimension.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

@Jalapeno, in space-time, it is a hole.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@deadbeatles, they are theories, granted. But if you can come up with a better one, I'm all ears.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Black Holes certainly hold a sense of fascination for many of us, but concerning this article, in particular I like the journo Seth Borenstein's colorful flair with language.

Expressions such as -

"...Light gets bent and twisted around by gravity in a bizarre funhouse effect .."

"...the ferocious heat .."

"... a black hole would rip a person apart..."

"...the object is so jumpy ..."

"...Black holes are "like the walls of a prison..."

certainly lift the somewhat at times, dull world of science reporting, to another level.

I'd give him a good grade in my creative writing class.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Black holes are "like the walls of a prison..."

What a dumb analogy. Might as well say blackholes are like a constantly flushing toilet. There is no need for a comparison. Black holes are like nothing else in the universe.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Does a black hole grow, shrink, stop, start, will they take over the Universe or fade away ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And tomorrow you'll see another amazing picture, of Falcon Heavy taking off, maybe one day on its way to Mars, about as far as humans can travel.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

zichiToday  02:33 pm JST

The phenomenon is called Hawking Radiation. But that's not the end. After a long long time, the black hole would lose mass due to the gradual addition of antiparticles. As Hawking says, the black holes would evaporate.

Although this has been theorized, it has never been proven since we do not know what kind of state mass is beyond the even horizon. If mass had changed to charge neutral then mutual inhalation will not occur.

We just do not know.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Supermassive black holes are situated at the center of most galaxies, including ours, and are so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational pull.

Good thing it's 53 million light-years away.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The pic is bit fuzzy, but the concept makes its point.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

It looks like how most theorists imagined it to be

But it's the first ever "photograph" of its existence

Pics and it did happen

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A certain Dr Katie Bouman making America great again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Bouman

Some proud parents out there today I think.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is relevant and interesting -

Why this black hole photo is such a big deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAoEHR4aW8I

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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