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What's new is that scientists were able to capture an image of its silhouette. Black holes, as you say, don't emit any light, so we can only see surrounding obj
by atombender 5y ago
What's new is that scientists were able to capture an image of its silhouette. Black holes, as you say, don't emit any light, so we can only see surrounding objects — the accretion disk and jets of hot gas. For comparison, the kinds of images we've been able to capture with Hubble look like this: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/core-and-optical-jet-of-galaxy-m87-nasaesastscihford-et-al.html https://fineartamerica.com/featured/core-and-optical-jet-of-....
- BitwiseFool 5y agoBut even in the image they generated, it is just the matter surrounding the black hole we see, right?
- atombender 5y agoWell, we can observe the absence of light, which (semantics aside) is also something you can see.
- wumpus 5y agoThis is usually called the "shadow" of the black hole. The press release we're discussing calls it that.