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the original tiff is 7416x4320 it's still too many pixel, it can be a fifth of that while conveying the same amount of information. I'm puzzled by this, if ea

the original tiff is 7416x4320 it's still too many pixel, it can be a fifth of that while conveying the same amount of information. I'm puzzled by this, if each of those pixel is actually captured by the lenses, why is it all this much uniform? was it smoothed or does this suggest that it's actually a gigantic uniform cloud of gas? haven't seen the whole video of the release, I'll have to catch up later in the evening, but this really seems to have captured way too much compared to the actual lens resolution and I wonder what would be the "confidence interval" or astrophysical equivalent on each of those pixels.

petschge 8y ago
The picture is not captured by lenses, or an optical telescope at all. It is created by inverting the data received at eight radio telescopes (or eighty individual dishes) around the world. And the smoothing is just due to the inherent limit in the resolving power of the telescope array. The impressive bit is that we see more than a single bright dot.
princekolt 8y ago
There is no lens. This was done using eight radio telescopes (or arrays) around the globe to create a "virtual" radio telescope which is effectively the size of the earth. After that the data of the individual telescopes was processed to produce an image. There is some more info in the wikipedia article for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope
- joering2 8y ago
  Thanks for the link. More reading reveals the amount of data produced goes into Petabytes. You can't just upload it to drop box or push it via FTP; hence correct icon of an airplane because those drives with data are indeed delivered by regular means of transportation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope#/media/File:EHT-infography.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope#/media...
theWheez 8y ago
From the press conference, they said that the raw captured data took up 6 cubic meters of hard drives
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  > cubic meters of hard drives Astronomy and high energy physics are pretty much the only science I know where this is an applicable unit of measurement

petschge 8y ago

The picture is not captured by lenses, or an optical telescope at all. It is created by inverting the data received at eight radio telescopes (or eighty individual dishes) around the world. And the smoothing is just due to the inherent limit in the resolving power of the telescope array. The impressive bit is that we see more than a single bright dot.

princekolt 8y ago

There is no lens. This was done using eight radio telescopes (or arrays) around the globe to create a "virtual" radio telescope which is effectively the size of the earth. After that the data of the individual telescopes was processed to produce an image. There is some more info in the wikipedia article for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope

joering2 8y ago
Thanks for the link. More reading reveals the amount of data produced goes into Petabytes. You can't just upload it to drop box or push it via FTP; hence correct icon of an airplane because those drives with data are indeed delivered by regular means of transportation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope#/media/File:EHT-infography.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope#/media...

theWheez 8y ago

From the press conference, they said that the raw captured data took up 6 cubic meters of hard drives

vanderZwan 8y ago
> cubic meters of hard drives Astronomy and high energy physics are pretty much the only science I know where this is an applicable unit of measurement