Astronomy / Space First photo of black hole recorded

I'm guessing the image of Sagittarius A* won't look as dramatic, because we will be looking at the accretion disk from side on. Unless it has that halo like in Interstellar.
 
I'm guessing the image of Sagittarius A* won't look as dramatic, because we will be looking at the accretion disk from side on. Unless it has that halo like in Interstellar.
Even if you'd look at it edge on, you would still see parts of accretion disc as if it was perpendicular to us. It sounds weird. There are more difficulties to seeing Saggitarius A apparently. Due to our position in the galaxy we have almost half of it's diameter to look through. With the stars and dust in a way.
 
Even if you'd look at it edge on, you would still see parts of accretion disc as if it was perpendicular to us. It sounds weird. There are more difficulties to seeing Saggitarius A apparently. Due to our position in the galaxy we have almost half of it's diameter to look through. With the stars and dust in a way.
Also, it would appear that the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is not as active as this monster in the middle of M87.

Edit: Scott Manley has made a nice video about it....

Source: https://youtu.be/yrQZi02LKQY
 
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Typical response from a typical Millennial. Apparently you do, or you wouldn't have taken the time to post a retort.

Heh. You've not responded to my post. You're attacking other posters.

Instead of saying what you don't agree with, why not be the bigger person and state what your level of evidence is to believe this is true?

That way, we can see if you're close minded and worth ignoring, or actually open to learn.

I bid you good day.
 
I'm guessing the image of Sagittarius A* won't look as dramatic, because we will be looking at the accretion disk from side on. Unless it has that halo like in Interstellar.
And you'd be looking at it from a really bad angle through the disk of the Milky Way with all its gas and dust. While the 1.3mm band is probably in a relatively trouble-free spot, geometry suggests the results wouldn't be much better than M87.
 
Does the Veritasium video actually show an image of Sag A*? :unsure:

Edit: From Veritasium: "Please note: the image of SgrA* is apparently a simulation, not real data. During the press conference I was emailed links to the videos I’ve shown including the one for M87 and SgrA* with no indication the latter was a simulation. Please accept my apologies for any confusion caused. It does show the relative sizes of the two black holes as they will look from our perspective. "
 
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Very awesome results, and atleast we know to steer clear of M87 when we become galaxy jumping humans :)

The effects of black holes have been 'observed' for a longtime now, and some of the greatest minds of our generations have done lots of incredible work about them, so seeing some evidence and proof of that is fantastic. Science is amazing and the fact you can't pick and choose what 'science' works or does not (the Scientific Principle being what it is) it is great to see it in action.

If you are the kind of person that has an issue with some of sciences results, just look around you at all the things you use (like erm your computer) everyday that exist just because of how science works. However when you mix a political view point into that, that is when you see the confusions likely to lead you down the warren hole of non-reality. In 'that' world you end up questioning everything all the time and close your mind to actual realities (like scientific discoveries and reports) and in the end you believe just what you want to believe (or what you are told to believe) and ignore the 'science' that can not fit your world view. It is a very 'cultish' way to view the reality of the world around us, with all the downsides that involves.

So thank you Einstein and Hawking and all the scientists like you that paved the way to being able to 'see' results like this.
 
Typical response from a typical Millennial. Apparently you do, or you wouldn't have taken the time to post a retort.

You may be trolling. If not I appreciate your skepticism. Just use it wisely. Some of the things we have learned about the Universe bends our understanding of reality, but contrary to a lot of fantasy, in some cases you can actually verify peoples claims with your own eyes. I guess you trust those, even though I must caution you. Your senses can be deceiving as well.

The first time I saw Saturn's rings through a telescope my heart literally jumped. I had seen fantastic images, and the Saturn I saw was not as spectacular in detail, but seeing it "live" was mindbogling. The same goes for Jupiters moons, the Andromeda Galaxy, globular clusters, and much more. I highly recommend finding the darkest spot you can find (far away from civilization). Bring a normal handheld binocular (nothing fancy needed) and some sort of night sky map. That is all you need to have to see stuff you wouldn't believe unless you had actually seen it ;)
 
This is a fun image..

m87_black_hole_size_comparison.png
 
You may be trolling. If not I appreciate your skepticism. Just use it wisely. Some of the things we have learned about the Universe bends our understanding of reality, but contrary to a lot of fantasy, in some cases you can actually verify peoples claims with your own eyes. I guess you trust those, even though I must caution you. Your senses can be deceiving as well.

The first time I saw Saturn's rings through a telescope my heart literally jumped. I had seen fantastic images, and the Saturn I saw was not as spectacular in detail, but seeing it "live" was mindbogling. The same goes for Jupiters moons, the Andromeda Galaxy, globular clusters, and much more. I highly recommend finding the darkest spot you can find (far away from civilization). Bring a normal handheld binocular (nothing fancy needed) and some sort of night sky map. That is all you need to have to see stuff you wouldn't believe unless you had actually seen it ;)
I've been an avid "Backyard Astronomer" for more than 60 years. I presently have a APM Maksutov Cassegrain 12" F/15 Telescope with just about every attachment one can possibly want. In addition to a pair of Fujinon Binoculars LB 25x150 MT-SX. I agree with you when one see's the cosmos for themselves the first time, it's mind blowing. The nights are clear here in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico an average of 330 nights a year. I spend an average of 3 nights a week observing the Moon and about the same days observing the Sun, when it's busy and you know what I mean by busy. Most nights I'll have at least one of the neighbor kids or one of their parents join me. I enjoy passing on some of my apparently now antiquated knowledge.

Having done a lot of traditional astro-photography in the ole' days, when the availability to use computer software became available I switched to digital. In the process I came to understand the dynamics and the ability to use software to enhance them. Thus I'm very aware of the fact that digital (composite's) photo's can be altered and to some degree, have done so, just to see if I could match some of the supposed NASA photo's. Its amazing how much even I as a complete amateur, can get a photo taken from my 12 inch on Earth to look similar to photo's taken by Hubble.
 
@ Vasco Sapien

Yep. It is mighty big, but also very far away. I once (accidentally) took a picture of an asteroid that orbits Sol in the Inner Belt, 2-2.5 AUs from the star. 63 Ausonia is a whopper of a rock, 100 kilometers in diameter, but it is still just a single pixel in any image shot from Earth. That is because imaging it from Earth resembles taking a picture of a golf ball at a distance of 300 kilometers. This is roughly the resolution one can get with (large) amateur telescopes from within Earths atmosphere.

Imaging the black hole in M87 is a whole different task. The resolution of that image is thousands of times higher. Some years ago i developed a method for combining data from many amateur astronomers (including my own). Using that I have been able to see the relativistic jet of the black hole in M87, but nowhere near seeing the black hole itself.

127459


The jet is also shown in the Veritasium video (0:11), and that gives a good indication of the resolution of the black hole image.
 
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Its amazing how much even I as a complete amateur, can get a photo taken from my 12 inch on Earth to look similar to photo's taken by Hubble.

Yes you can do that to a certain degree, and you can even cheat and paint on the image. However there are quite severe consequences if you deliberately cheat within science including jail. It happens, but it's rare. I think it's more common that the media spices up the stories from science, combined with the fact that science has become cold business where any researcher spend most of their time getting money for their research.

I envy you your observation site. Most of us are stuck in the light pollution in cities, only being able to get semi-proper results using narrow band filters. Visual is a no-go on anything else than the planets and the moon.

Edit: And yes, watching the Sun when it's active is an experience you never forget. It's not for the faint of heart though. I talked to a guy who forgot to cover up his finder telescope. At that time he had a long beard. While looking at the Sun he suddenly noticed the smell of burning hair :)
 
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Yes you can do that to a certain degree, and you can even cheat and paint on the image. However there are quite severe consequences if you deliberately cheat within science including jail. It happens, but it's rare. I think it's more common that the media spices up the stories from science, combined with the fact that science has become cold business where any researcher spend most of their time getting money for their research.

I envy you your observation site. Most of us are stuck in the light pollution in cities, only being able to get semi-proper results using narrow band filters. Visual is a no-go on anything else than the planets and the moon.

Edit: And yes, watching the Sun when it's active is an experience you never forget. It's not for the faint of heart though. I talked to a guy who forgot to cover up his finder telescope. At that time he had a long beard. While looking at the Sun he suddenly noticed the smell of burning hair :)


One of the reason's and there are quite a few, I moved here besides my wife being from here. Is the number of clear nights AND on April 8, 2024 I'll be able to cross off the last item off on my bucket list, providing I make it that far. Though I've seen many many partials, there will be a total solar eclipse. It will be my first and more than likely my last available chance to view one.
 
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