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Are discoveries about black holes legit? Isn't it still the case that they have not been experimentally confirmed to exist, and all talk of discoveries is just
by btcindivist 8y ago
Are discoveries about black holes legit?
Isn't it still the case that they have not been experimentally confirmed to exist, and all talk of discoveries is just conceptual?
- snarfy 8y agoWe have recorded a video[1] of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7xl_zjz0o8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7xl_zjz0o8
- rjth 8y agoAmazing video!
- aidos 8y agoThat’s incredible! Definitely love to see / hear more about this if anyone has any pointers?
- snarfy 8y agoThe video came from this study - "Monitoring stellar orbits around the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center" - https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4674 https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4674 the wiki article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kowdermeister 8y agoNo, they definitely exists, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_X-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_X-1
- azernik 8y agoThey are actually quite visible - their accretion disks (matter falling into the black hole) are very hot and radiate on a broad range of frequencies.
- marcosdumay 8y agoAn accretion disk is not a black hole. Current physics have no other explanation for the disks, but it does not mean that the black holes are really there. There is also some lack of precision on the LIGO experiment that does not invalidate all reasonable alternative explanations. As people already said, the evident is overwhelming on the side of black holes existing. But we don't have any definitive measurement of them.
- azernik 8y agoWe have direct proof of: * extremely large masses * in very small volumes * that are not, themselves, emitting anything It could be many things, but they pretty much all fit the definition of "black hole".
- WJW 8y agoI think this is as definitive a proof we'll get until we get close enough to directly measure Hawking radiation. Of course, by that time we should also be close enough to "see" the black hole directly...
- hansen 8y agoIt's a bit a matter of definition or interpretation but I would count the LIGO observations as direct observations of black holes. But as others pointed out there's lots of evidence for their existence.