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I posted a comment 10 minutes ago and it got immediately downvoted into oblivion. Could you guys please tell me why it is such a bad question to ask? Thank you!

I posted a comment 10 minutes ago and it got immediately downvoted into oblivion. Could you guys please tell me why it is such a bad question to ask? Thank you! Here it is: Does it really count as an image of a black hole? Since no light is reflected by the black hole, all we see is light bend by the gravity of the black hole. Haven't we seen that before? I have the strong feeling there have been photos of star constellations that seem distorted because of black holes. A quick googling brings up this article from 2014 for example: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/12/tech/black-hole-nasa-nust.. https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/12/tech/black-hole-nasa-nust.... "Black hole bends light, space, time -- and NASA's NuSTAR can see it all unfold"

bubblewrap 7y ago
Must admit, I feel kind of the same. It's also probably more of an artistic rendering than a photograph in the classical sense.
- zymhan 7y ago
  Humans can only see a tiny sliver of the enormous Electromagnetic spectrum. Just because it's not a photograph in visible light doesn't mean it's not our best rendering of EM data and what that would look like to us if it was in the visible spectrum. We do the same thing with digital cameras, X-rays, MRI, etc.
yetihehe 7y ago
> Could you guys please tell me why it is such a bad question to ask? Because it's nitpicking[0]. When scientists show you results of several years of work of many people, you effectively chose to ask question like "Is it really violet? Seems more purple to me". You don't contribute anything to discussion, but just want to sound smart-ass. [0] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nitpicking https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nitpicking
- founderling 7y ago
  Thanks! The link says nitpicking is "Looking for small or unimportant errors". That is certainly not what I want to do. The press is full of articles about this "First photo of a black hole". This seems to imply that it is somehow important. But so far, I fail to see what is important about it. So my question still stands. I would really like to know in what sense this is the first image of a black hole. And if there is something we can learn from looking at it. My first impression is "Yeah, it's round. I would have thought so." :)
  - tomhoward 7y ago
    Is anyone knowledgeable about the project calling it a "photo" (i.e., the term you used) or are they calling it (more accurately) an "image"? My take in response to your original question is that it seems like nitpicking or armchair quarterbacking or something else related to that. I'm always wary of succumbing to the "appeal to authority" fallacy, but this does seem like a case where all the experts and leading figures in a field are saying this is a big deal, and publishing a lot of info about it, so the right approach just seems to be to take the time to read/listen to what they're saying and learn, rather than posting simplistic skeptical questions in web forums. If you didn't intend to come across that way, then perhaps rethink your question or the way you worded it.
    - founderling 7y ago
      Well, what would be a "first image"? There have been countless images depicting black holes since forever: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+hole&t=h_&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+hole&t=h_&ia=images&iax=imag...
      - tomhoward 7y ago
        This is an image rendered from photons that had passed around the black hole, and travelled to Earth and been captured by a radio telescope that humans built. It's the first time that's been done. All the images in the DDG search are artistic constructions. Edit: The thing that's so remarkable is that it does look like what scientists predicted it would look like, and thus some of those artistic representations are similar to what we're now seeing in this image.

bubblewrap 7y ago

Must admit, I feel kind of the same. It's also probably more of an artistic rendering than a photograph in the classical sense.

zymhan 7y ago
Humans can only see a tiny sliver of the enormous Electromagnetic spectrum. Just because it's not a photograph in visible light doesn't mean it's not our best rendering of EM data and what that would look like to us if it was in the visible spectrum. We do the same thing with digital cameras, X-rays, MRI, etc.

yetihehe 7y ago

> Could you guys please tell me why it is such a bad question to ask? Because it's nitpicking[0]. When scientists show you results of several years of work of many people, you effectively chose to ask question like "Is it really violet? Seems more purple to me". You don't contribute anything to discussion, but just want to sound smart-ass. [0] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nitpicking https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nitpicking

founderling 7y ago
Thanks! The link says nitpicking is "Looking for small or unimportant errors". That is certainly not what I want to do. The press is full of articles about this "First photo of a black hole". This seems to imply that it is somehow important. But so far, I fail to see what is important about it. So my question still stands. I would really like to know in what sense this is the first image of a black hole. And if there is something we can learn from looking at it. My first impression is "Yeah, it's round. I would have thought so." :)
- tomhoward 7y ago
  Is anyone knowledgeable about the project calling it a "photo" (i.e., the term you used) or are they calling it (more accurately) an "image"? My take in response to your original question is that it seems like nitpicking or armchair quarterbacking or something else related to that. I'm always wary of succumbing to the "appeal to authority" fallacy, but this does seem like a case where all the experts and leading figures in a field are saying this is a big deal, and publishing a lot of info about it, so the right approach just seems to be to take the time to read/listen to what they're saying and learn, rather than posting simplistic skeptical questions in web forums. If you didn't intend to come across that way, then perhaps rethink your question or the way you worded it.
  - founderling 7y ago
    Well, what would be a "first image"? There have been countless images depicting black holes since forever: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+hole&t=h_&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+hole&t=h_&ia=images&iax=imag...
    - tomhoward 7y ago
      This is an image rendered from photons that had passed around the black hole, and travelled to Earth and been captured by a radio telescope that humans built. It's the first time that's been done. All the images in the DDG search are artistic constructions. Edit: The thing that's so remarkable is that it does look like what scientists predicted it would look like, and thus some of those artistic representations are similar to what we're now seeing in this image.