First photograph of a real Black Hole

No, this is not a photo of the HQ of the Fishwrap, a place so dense that no light can escape it. Nor is it a pic of the Jesuits’ Generalate in Rome.  This isn’t an artistic rendering of the Democrat Party.  This is the first ever snapshot of a black hole.

NASA used a gizmo called the Event Horizon Telescope (a collaborative venture) to capture the image.

The linked article is pretty interesting.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. capchoirgirl says:

    This is SO COOL. I love this sort of stuff!

  2. I was trying to think of organizations, whether business, governmental or other, for which this would be a fitting symbol.

  3. acardnal says:

    There are several articles on this photo, how it was taken (more than one telescope involved) and black holes in general at “Discover” magazine’s website. HERE

  4. iamlucky13 says:

    The explanation in the link Father provided focuses on the x-ray space telescopes that helped support the measurements that were used to generate the image, although the actual image came from 8 ground-based radio telescopes working in conjunction. The first link in that article to the Event Horizon Telescope site has more information.

    Father commented on how complex the math for the Israeli moon lander’s transfer orbit must have been, but as I understand it, the math behind this technique for using multiple telescopes in different locations to increase resolution is even more challenging.

    That technique is called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (Wikipedia link for those interested).

    For the radio folks here, the measurements were made at 1.3mm wavelength, or 230 GHz (EHF).

    This makes me want to watch the old Disney movie again, regardless of how disconnected it is from actual black hole science.

  5. Father G says:

    “This makes me want to watch the old Disney movie again, regardless of how disconnected it is from actual black hole science.”

    @iamlucky13
    Hahaha! My thoughts exactly! I’ve been listening to the soundtrack on Youtube today.

  6. Gregg the Obscure says:

    is it just a coincidence that it so resembles the Obama logo?

  7. Gab says:

    Why is there an out of focus picture of a glazed donut on this post?

  8. Sonshine135 says:

    One ring to rule them all!

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