UA News: Scientists Prepare to Take First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

[MrSilverMaC]

"The Event Horizon Telescope is an Earth-sized virtual telescope powerful enough to see all the way to the center of our Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole will allow astrophysicists to put Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to the test.

Astronomers, physicists and scientists from related fields across the world will convene in Tucson, Ariz. on Jan. 18 to discuss an endeavor that only a few years ago would have been regarded as nothing less than outrageous.

The conference is organized by Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, and Dan Marrone, an assistant professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory..."

more at link:

http://uanews.org/node/44218

[Larry]

Better use a flash.

[Hubbs]

Whatever you do, don't invite Sam Neill.

[SWFLSkins]

Well it is black and what do they expect to see other than blackness?

[Elessar78]

Whatever you do, don't invite Sam Neill.

Still most disturbing movie I've seen.

---------- Post added January-14th-2012 at 10:25 AM ----------

Well it is black and what do they expect to see other than blackness?

Yeah, I'm asking for my money back when they show me a pic of empty space.

[SWFLSkins]

Still most disturbing movie I've seen.

---------- Post added January-14th-2012 at 10:25 AM ----------

Yeah, I'm asking for my money back when they show me a pic of empty space.

But look real close, it is truly magnificent in all it's blackness. hahhaa

[Bang]

Oprah's finally posing for Playboy?

OK, ok, so yell at me.

~Bang

[Larry]

Recall once (only once) actually hearing Walter Cronkite tell a joke on the news.

He was mentioning that a group of US and Russian scientists were meeting at a conference to discuss the science of collapsed stars.

And he mentioned that "part of the cross-cultural experience of the conference will be the American scientists having to be careful to refer to these objects as 'collapsed stars', as opposed to the more-common 'black holes', which, when translated into Russian, means exactly what you think it means."

[Bang]

If anyone can show me how to post an MP3, I'll pop one up of Ronald Reagan telling a very funny Soviet joke.

But I'll do it in the Owned thread so as to not hijack any further.

~Bang

[Larry]

You're worried about hijacking a thread about taking pictures of a black hole?

[Unforgiven]

Well it is black and what do they expect to see other than blackness?

Like it mentioned in the article, Black Holes glow outside of their event horizon due to all friction from all the matter being pulled into the hole itself. So they would see a black void that is glowing around it's edges.

I'm sure most people have seen CGI depictions on science shows before, but to actually see it should be pretty cool.

[China]

Um, hello, it's called the Event Horizon Telescope. Their not so much going to take a picture of the black hole itself but everything that surrounds it and discern information from the behavior of material at its edges, i.e., the event horizon. They'll get more of an outline.

[SWFLSkins]

Like it mentioned in the article, Black Holes glow outside of their event horizon due to all friction from all the matter being pulled into the hole itself. So they would see a black void that is glowing around it's edges.

I'm sure most people have seen CGI depictions on science shows before, but to actually see it should be pretty cool.

I have seen that before and I can imagine it is pretty cool, like the nebula's. I was just trying to be funny, I will keep trying.

[Larry]

Like it mentioned in the article, Black Holes glow outside of their event horizon due to all friction from all the matter being pulled into the hole itself. So they would see a black void that is glowing around it's edges.

I'm sure most people have seen CGI depictions on science shows before, but to actually see it should be pretty cool.

Why an outline?

I would think that an object that was black, but which had a glowing "atmosphere", so to speak, would look like the Sun.

[Unforgiven]

Why an outline?

I would think that an object that was black, but which had a glowing "atmosphere", so to speak, would look like the Sun.

Yeah, honestly I'm not exactly sure what it would look like. The only way I've seen them displayed is CGI and they're always in 2 dimensions rather than 3 dimensions the event horizon actually are. In 2d they obviously just look like flat rings with light around the outside, but in reality since you would have the "glow" from friction around the whole thing you might not see the "darkness."

That's why I'm curious to see it.

[Larry]

Now, I've read (but freely confess that I don't grasp the concept) that spinning black holes produce weird effects.

Maybe if the thing is spinning, then the spin would cause the glow to not be evenly distributed? :whoknows:

[Thiebear]

They are going to take a picture of the stars/gasses 'around' the black hole?

Because i doubt you can take a picture of something nothing can return from.

This is like taking pictures of a box of wine and empty bag of oreos and label it "Thiebear".