First direct image of a black hole

[Yukaphile]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... 5f7329b548

EPIC.

[Deledrius]

It was a grad student who did some of the crucial work on this, too!

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I had no idea....

I had no idea...

I had no idea...

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I like the trivial bit I learned about the imaging of a black hole. The blackness in the center is solely to do with light not being able to escape the gravitational pull, so we see a void instead. All the light surrounding it is light from imaging of something that hasn't been pulled in yet.

[Madner Kami]

I like the trivial bit I learned about the imaging of a black hole. The blackness in the center is solely to do with light not being able to escape the gravitational pull, so we see a void instead. All the light surrounding it is light from imaging of something that hasn't been pulled in yet.

That's actually fairly creepy if you really think about it: You don't actually see a void. Your eyes do not see a void there, they merely transmit the absence of input from the area they are looking at to your brain. Your brain just has learned that if it doesn't percieve something, then there is nothing there. Your brain then literally convinces you, that there is nothing where you are looking at.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I like the trivial bit I learned about the imaging of a black hole. The blackness in the center is solely to do with light not being able to escape the gravitational pull, so we see a void instead. All the light surrounding it is light from imaging of something that hasn't been pulled in yet.

That's actually fairly creepy if you really think about it: You don't actually see a void. Your eyes do not see a void there, they merely transmit the absence of input from the area they are looking at to your brain. Your brain just has learned that if it doesn't percieve something, then there is nothing there. Your brain then literally convinces you, that there is nothing where you are looking at.

Yes it is. It's a rare, if not only, occasion where we encounter a dynamic of light that we have been accustomed to in one unison manner. Everything we see is the result of light bouncing off of it. Our brain interprets the object via physical light signals that we sense bouncing off of everything. Of course we can only see it with at least any presence of ambient illumination, but they have always gone hand in hand until now.

So I guess it's not much different than seeing an apple in a pitch black room, except there is illuminating light, just the apple is the only thing we perceive as pitch black dark.

[Darth Wedgius]

Unique-ish.



It is quite an accomplishment, though. In some ways, this really is a great time to be alive.

[Yukaphile]

And in others, less so. But yeah, for science and understanding the universe, it's truly a golden age like no other. And perhaps even sending solar sails to another star in 20 years? We're not gonna live to see the pioneering efforts, but we can lay down the steps.

[Rocketboy1313]

xkcd did a little sketch of how big the black hole is relative to our solar system.

And I do mean *little*.

https://xkcd.com/2135/

[Yukaphile]

Awesome, nice job! I saved it to My Documents on my desktop.

Also, did anyone hear the petition that went around a few years ago to namek Kepler-22b Planet Namek?