First pictures of a Black Hole?

I have mixed emotions about this. Astronomers have known for quite some time the existence of black holes, not least in our own very Milky Way, and as such I am not overly excited about this latest revelation via photographic evidence.

That said, if the photographs do bear scrutiny, then it will certainly add to the overall cosmological dynamic that nearly every sizable galaxy will have its own resident black hole- not least the awesome elliptical M87
 
@HanaBi .... Of course what you say is true, but somehow it feels more real and exciting to have other than mathematical evidence. I'd guess not a few people would stumble over even an explanation of the math behind the proof of black holes, a picture though....
 
Parson said:
@HanaBi .... Of course what you say is true, but somehow it feels more real and exciting to have other than mathematical evidence. I'd guess not a few people would stumble over even an explanation of the math behind the proof of black holes, a picture though....
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Yup. Waiting to see the photo.
HanaBi said:
nearly every sizable galaxy will have its own resident black hole- not least the awesome elliptical M87
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Millions of black holes.

EDIT: At least 100 billion other galaxies visible, each containing around 100 billion stars. It's too much for the mind. From that down to atoms. 20 million atoms in this full-stop.

20 million is a lot: Pile 10 bricks in your room, make 10 such piles is 100. Make 10 such piles of 100 bricks = a thousand; make a thousand such piles = a million. The numbers on their own mean nothing, unless related to the ordinary world Its just too much to process, imo.

I like these science discussions :)
 
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LIGO has already recorded gravity waves 10 times, from collisions between pairs of supermassive black holes zillions of light years away. Each on the level of recording the change caused by dropping a feather on an oil tanker. It's amazing stuff, imo :)
 
RJM Corbet said:
Yup. Waiting to see the photo.
Millions of black holes.

EDIT: At least 100 billion other galaxies visible, each containing around 100 billion stars. It's too much for the mind. From that down to atoms. 20 million atoms in this full-stop.

20 million is a lot: Pile 10 bricks in your room, make 10 such piles is 100. Make 10 such piles of 100 bricks = a thousand; make a thousand such piles = a million. The numbers on their own mean nothing, unless related to the ordinary world Its just too much to process, imo.

I like these science discussions :)
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I will always remember an episode from Carl Sagan's wonderful "Cosmos" documentary from the early 80s. He was describing the immensity of the universe, but also introduced a Googol (not Google), which is 10 to the power of 100 - which is BIG! But that is nothing compared to a GoogolPlex, which is 10 to the power of a Googol (or 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 100).

According to Wiki ....
One googol is presumed to be greater than the number of atoms in the observable universe, which has been estimated to be approximately 1078.[3] Thus, in the physical world, it is difficult to give examples of numbers that compare to the vastly greater googolplex. However, in analyzing quantum states and black holes, physicist Don Page writes that "determining experimentally whether or not information is lost down black holes of solar mass ... would require more than 101076.96 measurements to give a rough determination of the final density matrix after a black hole evaporates".[4] The end of the Universe via Big Freeze without proton decay is expected to be around 101075 years into the future.

In a separate article, Page shows that the number of states in a black hole with a mass roughly equivalent to the Andromeda Galaxy is in the range of a googolplex.[5]

Writing the number would take an extreme amount of time: if a person can write two digits per second, then writing a googolplex would take about 1.51×1092 years, which is about 1.1×1082 times the accepted age of the universe.[5]
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Googolplex - Wikipedia
 
HanaBi said:
I will always remember an episode from Carl Sagan's wonderful "Cosmos" documentary from the early 80s. He was describing the immensity of the universe, but also introduced a Googol (not Google), which is 10 to the power of 100 - which is BIG! But that is nothing compared to a GoogolPlex, which is 10 to the power of a Googol (or 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 100).

According to Wiki ....


Googolplex - Wikipedia
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Yes. The things they do are just astounding. It's so interesting, trying to keep up with it.

But @HanaBi Carl Sagan and the 80's is stone-age with this stuff! It moves so fast and there's a lot of stuff on you tube, understandable to ordinary folks and without equations. If it's before 2016 it's basically old stuff and there will be newer stuff, lol :)

EDIT: Richard Feynman's lectures excluded. They are still as enlightening now as ever, imo.
 
I can't imagine it would look like anything other than a blob of light, but the embargoed journalists who've seen it over the last couple of weeks seem to be satisfied with the results. Maybe we'll see several stars or plasma jets moving at high velocity.

This project has been really interesting. There was something intriguing about waiting until winter in North America until the final hardrive could be retrieved from the South Pole, while the other drives were already waiting in Germany. It seems like it's been a long wait.
 
Parson said:
Hm, darkness which can only be seen by the contrasting light. ---- There might just be a sermon in there somewhere.
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Darkness is the lack of light, not it's opposite. Bottom of a mine is total darkness. The limit of darkness. No light at all. But a candle brings light.

20 candles bring more light -- thousands of candles -- a sun, 10 million suns. No limit to light?
 
I remember the old TVs. When you turned em off, light on the screen shrank to a small dot and faded out...
 
RJM Corbet said:
Darkness is the lack of light, not it's opposite. Bottom of a mine is total darkness. The limit of darkness. No light at all. But a candle brings light.
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Your quote is not in opposition to what I said. I said that you could see the darkness because of the light around it. --- Not that darkness was the opposite of light. So.... sin is visible only in comparison with Godly choices. If no one lives in the light then darkness is all that there is and therefore is not seen. ---- Sliding too close to the discussion of religion here, so no more response from me.
 
I predict that this will come to be a famous photograph eventually

image.jpeg
 
Parson said:
Your quote is not in opposition to what I said. I said that you could see the darkness because of the light around it. --- Not that darkness was the opposite of light. So.... sin is visible only in comparison with Godly choices. If no one lives in the light then darkness is all that there is and therefore is not seen. ---- Sliding too close to the discussion of religion here, so no more response from me.
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No offence was intended. It was not meant to be in opposition. I'm on your side.
 
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