First image ever of black hole!

[Pat Barry]

Here's a link

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-first-picture-event-horizon-telescope

Not as exciting as I hoped for. Also, not much danger in accidentally running into this with your spacecraft.

What do you think?

[Wade Lippman]

It is actually a picture of the event horizon. You can't photograph a black hole as it is black.

You also can't run into one. Due to time dilation in the intense gravity, you would never get there. At least from your perspective; from ours you would go right it at a very high speed.

[julian abram]

Very interesting, our universe is magnificently and wonderfully made, inspiring to the imagination.

[Doug Dawson]

Very interesting, our universe is magnificently and wonderfully made, inspiring to the imagination.

Indeed! "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet) What they went thru to get that image was astonishing and inspiring.

[Kev Williams]

--and what we see in the photograph actually happened a mere 15 million years after the big rock took out our dinosaurs- give or take a year... ;)

boggles the mind...

[Michael Weber]

My understanding it is the Event Horizon as well. Might be the EH of a black hole or other theoretical conjecture like a gravastar or some yet unknown mathematical model. There are mathematical models that explain the big bang as the explosion of a black hole. As someone who barely managed graduation, I'm constantly amazed at the intelligence of some members of our species.

[Pat Barry]

Event horizon is not a very descriptive name. On ther other hand it sure looks a lot like a black hole.

[Michael Weber]

All the pictures show the extreme zoom in. Here's a zoomed out version that shows the black hole (or whatever) and everything it is consuming

[Steve Demuth]

It is actually a picture of the event horizon. You can't photograph a black hole as it is black.

You also can't run into one. Due to time dilation in the intense gravity, you would never get there. At least from your perspective; from ours you would go right it at a very high speed.

Not quite. The edge in the picture between bright and dark actually represents what is known as the "photon orbit" or "photon sphere." It's substantially larger than the event horizon. Light that passes the photon orbit limit can still be reflected back and escape the singularity, but almost none does. A photon's trajectory if it passes the photon orbit is either going to be straight into the event horizon, or an orbital spiral that eventually passes through the event horizon.

[Brett Luna]

The dark area, within the glow of the accretion disc, is also known as the event horizon "shadow." One the exciting things about the image is that the size of the shadow was as predicted by theory...about 2½ times the size of the event horizon itself. Indeed, the image is quite close to various computer-modeled images that were generated prior to the actual image being obtained.

From the European Southern Observatory (https://www.eso.org/public/images/akiyama_m87/):

https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/akiyama_m87.jpg

A simulated image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy. The dark gap at the centre is the shadow of the black hole.

Credit: Jason Dexter (left) and Kazunori Akiyama (right)

(Usage per the publisher's terms (https://www.eso.org/public/outreach/copyright/))

[Jerome Stanek]

Event horizon is not a very descriptive name. On ther other hand it sure looks a lot like a black hole.

I wouldn't know I never saw a black hole. I always thought a hole was something with nothing

[Pat Barry]

I wouldn't know I never saw a black hole. I always thought a hole was something with nothing

Ok, what about a donut hole?

[John K Jordan]

I read that. My scientist friends are all excited. What is just as interesting as the photo is how it was obtained.

BTW, the Science News site is a excellent source for lots of fascinating things.

JKJ

[Tom M King]

It's been my theory, for a long time, that matter, and energy are different states of the same stuff. Every galaxy has a black hole at its center, that is converting matter to energy. This theory covers the reason the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Energy repels, and matters attracts. As matter is being converted to energy, the amount of matter is decreasing, and the total amount of energy is increasing.

[Kev Williams]

Back in the early '80's a friend gave me a book from the local planetarium titled 'Black Holes and wardped space time". Some above have mentioned 'event horizon' isn't very descriptive. This book explained the event horizon as simply the points in space in which the gravity from a black hole begins tugging at any nearby mass; any asteroid or piece of rock passing outside a 'holes event horizon will maintain its trajectory; if it passes within the event horizon, no matter how slight, its trajectory will be altered by the gravity; if it passes far enough beyond the 'horizon to reach the point of no return, it won't be able to escape the gravity and will eventually be pulled into the 'simplicity'. Interesting take on the point of no return, at that point time and space change; on earth we're free to move about in space, but not time, but at the PONR an object must travel the speed of light to remain stationary, which means you're no longer free to move about in space, but you ARE free to move about in time... but it's a catch-22 because you're trapped in space...

And that's about all I know about black holes ;)

[Mel Fulks]

Can a black hole be filled in ? Or would it remain a junk magnet regardless of how much it's already consumed?
P.S. I have tried to write in layman' terms for those who's TV watching is less scientifically inclined .

[John K Jordan]

Can a black hole be filled in ? Or would it remain a junk magnet regardless of how much it's already consumed?
P.S. I have tried to write in layman' terms for those who's TV watching is less scientifically inclined .

Yikes, how are those who don't watch TV at all going to understand?? :)

I think that black holes are supposed to expand as they take in mass, increasing the Schwarzschild radius. I don't know for sure since I never got close enough to see one grow.

Have to study on whether there is a theoretical maximum size and mass but I suspect not.

JKJ

[Doug Dawson]

Can a black hole be filled in ? Or would it remain a junk magnet regardless of how much it's already consumed?


Yes, they will take all the stuff you are willing to throw in to them. Flashlights, tape measures, pencils, even socks. Definitely box cutters. Probably wrenches too, or at least that's what I suspect.

[Pat Barry]

Yes, they will take all the stuff you are willing to throw in to them. Flashlights, tape measures, pencils, even socks. Definitely box cutters. Probably wrenches too, or at least that's what I suspect.

Just like blowing more air into a balloon that will never pop.

[Brett Luna]

Back in the early '80's a friend gave me a book from the local planetarium titled 'Black Holes and wardped space time". Some above have mentioned 'event horizon' isn't very descriptive. This book explained the event horizon as simply the points in space in which the gravity from a black hole begins tugging at any nearby mass;

Not quite. The event horizon (EH) is the spherical "shell" of points at which the escape velocity of the black hole is equal to the speed of light. Once an object sails beyond that 'horizon', it's 'event' can no longer be observed. But a black hole can begin tugging on another object far outside of its EH.

Imagine if the Sun suddenly turned into a black hole. Not that it could...it doesn't have enough mass. But if it could and did, we'd sure notice the lack of sunlight but Earth's orbit would remain unchanged. The new black hole would have the same mass as the old Sun and it would tug on Earth with the same strength at that distance. Even Mercury wouldn't notice a change in orbit being that far away from an event horizon that's only 6 kilometers (~3¾ miles) in diameter. But things do get very hairy when you stray very close to an EH. Google "spaghettification" sometime, if you're of a mind to.


Can a black hole be filled in ? Or would it remain a junk magnet regardless of how much it's already consumed?
P.S. I have tried to write in layman' terms for those who's TV watching is less scientifically inclined .

No, the analogy of it being a hole breaks down completely in that regard. Adding stuff to it just makes it a bigger 'hole.' The increase is usually very small...infinitesimal, even...compared to the total mass. Unless you happen to throw something big at it. Like another black hole. In related news, you may have heard about the first detection of gravitational waves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_observation_of_gravitational_waves) a few years ago. Those waves were the result of two black holes merging into a bigger one.

On the other hand, a black hole can evaporate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation). It just takes a really, really long time.

[Mel Fulks]

Thanks Brett. I will look up the spaghetfication tonight.

[Jerome Stanek]

A donut without a hole is a bagle And how do you see something that isn't there

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Can a black hole be filled in ? Or would it remain a junk magnet regardless of how much it's already consumed?
P.S. I have tried to write in layman' terms for those who's TV watching is less scientifically inclined .

No- I have been trying my whole life to fill one in with tape measures, 10mm sockets, and various other small tools to no avail.

[Pat Barry]

A donut without a hole is a bagle And how do you see something that isn't there

Sorry, bagels have holes, just like donuts.

[Tony Zona]

Mariners will recognize their sailboats as black holes for money.