Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole

[Chippy_Tea]

Its a Monster, Its 40 billion km across, it has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun and luckily for us its 500 million trillion km away.



Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy.

It measures 40 billion km across - three million times the size of the Earth - and has been described by scientists as "a monster".

The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world.

Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Prof Heino Falcke, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, who proposed the experiment, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87.

"What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said.

"It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47873592


What is a black hole?

• A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape
• Despite the name, they are not empty but instead consist of a huge amount of matter packed densely into a small area, giving it an immense gravitational pull
• There is a region of space beyond the black hole called the event horizon. This is a "point of no return", beyond which it is impossible to escape the gravitational effects of the black hole

 

[Clint]

I am amazed how they arrived at their conclusions.
Are they based on physics as exist on Earth as the bit about large amounts of matter squeezed into a tiny space escapes my comprehension as it describes a non earth situation...unless my Mrs wardrobes count...

 

[An Ankoù]

I am amazed how they arrived at their conclusions.
Are they based on physics as exist on Earth as the bit about large amounts of matter squeezed into a tiny space escapes my comprehension as it describes a non earth situation...unless my Mrs wardrobes count...

If nothing, not even light, can escape the gravitational attraction of a black hole then they are necessarily in a state of contraction and are probably examples of the "big crunch" of the big bang / big crunch theory of the origin of the universe ie- nascent universes themselves. I only know this through imbibing of some of the more psychotropic recipes in Buhners "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers". Does this physics exist on Earth? Doubtful- singularities of such internal density tend to "wrap" time and space around them so we don't really know what or when is going on- Startreck Voyager (can't remember which episode),

 

[chesters-mild]

Well...that's one donut I don't fancy eating. But seriously it's a superb piece of work by the teams involved
Well done!
Cheers

 

[phildo79]

Fair play, it's big. 40 billion km across - I wonder what that is in inches.

 

[Nicks90]

We can create black holes on earth, just tiny ones that can't be sustained - check out Cern.
Although technically they aren't black holes, essentially they are doing the same thing as a black hole does, with the goal of watching what comes out when in disintegrates to observe new particle physics.

Black holes are actually pretty simple things.
Look at it this way.
You have 'normal' matter like what you and me is made of. Protons, neutrons, electrons and various energy waves making up visible and invisible light.
Then you have stars that are dense and hot enough in their core to overcome nuclear forces and smash themselves to bits to form ever heavier atoms and release energy waves (light and radiation)
When a star dies it collapses.
3 things can happen.
1) it isn't a big star and the core collapses into tightly packed regular atoms made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. Regular matter - Called a white dwarf
2) it's a big star and the core goes supernova and the remnants collapses with enough remaining mass to overcome the atoms and literally pushes all the protons and electrons together to make neutrons, basically overcoming the 'walls' of those subatomic particles and squishing them into one. You end up with a neutron star which is essentially one enormous atom made up of nothing but neutrons.
3) a reaaaally big star collapses and goes supernova. But the core is still so big that not only can it compress all the atoms together, squeeze all the electrons and protons together to make neutrons, but it can even squeeze all the neutrons together and forms a black hole. This is where it does get a bit weird and theoretical. In essence a black hole is actually just one new sub atomic particle....a super sized neutron
But to overcome the forces required to squash electrons and protons togethrr to form neutrons, squash neutrons together hard enough that they break down further, the density (and hence gravity) has to be so large that all energy gets sucked in. Don't forget light is just a particle. Just like everything else.

 

[uDicko]

Fair play, it's big. 40 billion km across - I wonder what that is in inches.

40000000000 kilometres =
1.575 × 1015 inches

 

[phildo79]

40000000000 kilometres =
1.575 × 1015 inches

You are missing some zeroes. A true billion has 12 of 'em.

Also, 1,598.62 inches? 44.4 yards! Brexit has hit the metric system HARD!

 

[An Ankoù]

We can create black holes on earth, just tiny ones that can't be sustained - check out Cern.
Although technically they aren't black holes, essentially they are doing the same thing as a black hole does, with the goal of watching what comes out when in disintegrates to observe new particle physics.

Ah, yes. The tiny ones. I have one nestling on a cotton-wool swab in a jam jar on the top shelf in my garage; just next to my Higgs Boson and fragment of the True Cross. I feel their presence wards off contamination and infections. So far, so good.

 

[dad_of_jon]

so thats where all my hb disappears to! - That would explain the weird space time dilution I experience in my shed

 

[Cwrw666]

Not sure why taking a photo, no matter how difficult to do, would be described as an `experiment'. Also since when did astronomers start measuring distances in millions of trillions of km? Give me it in light years.

 

[phildo79]

Not sure why taking a photo, no matter how difficult to do, would be described as an `experiment'. Also since when did astronomers start measuring distances in millions of trillions of km? Give me it in light years.

Or at lease in parsecs or megaparsecs. Come on guys, give us units of distance that we can at least wrap our heads around!

 

[foxbat]

Also since when did astronomers start measuring distances in millions of trillions of km? Give me it in light years.

They don't. They dumb it down for the media. On the BBC we're lucky we didn't get it in double-decker buses or olympic swimming pools.

 

[Gunge]

They don't. They dumb it down for the media. On the BBC we're lucky we didn't get it in double-decker buses or olympic swimming pools.

Are they caused by global warming?

 

[strange-steve]

I think this was for you @Gunge:

 

[Clint]

The thing is they don't REALLY know...it's based partly on science we partly understand and they suppose the rest. They took years to find Bin Laden who was never more than a few miles away,can't find the Loch Ness monster and don't know what truly lives at the bottom of the deepest part of the sea....

 

[Gunge]

I think this was for you @Gunge:

It's the BBC... it's photoshopped and a manufactured reason where the Brexit promises disappeared to. Full of shyte the lot of 'em. Bring on the revolution.

 

[Hoppyland]

Don't forget light is just a particle. Just like everything else.

Or is light a wave function? Isn't a photon a quantum wave packet?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Brilliant video.
(skip to 40 seconds to miss the crap)

 

[phildo79]

Cool!