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Our telescope is already as wide as the Earth, so there are two main ways to improve it: one is to launch some satellites, the other is to add more telescopes s
by wumpus 5y ago
Our telescope is already as wide as the Earth, so there are two main ways to improve it: one is to launch some satellites, the other is to add more telescopes so that we can see fainter things.
Sgr A* does have a lot of stuff in the way, and it's intrinsically fainter than M87*, but we will eventually publish about it.
- robbedpeter 5y agoCan you combine the data over longer periods, so that you can expand the effective size to earth's orbital diameter over the course of 6 months? Just coordinating at the global scale seems like a huge accomplishment, but using orbital travel to expand the scope seems like an obvious step. Do observatories coordinate over such long periods, or is time at a premium? Awesome project, thank you for your commentary!
- goodcanadian 5y agoThe effective size comes from interfering signals taken simultaneously at widely separated receivers, so no, you cannot increase effective size in that way. What you gain from increasing exposure time is that you can see fainter objects.
- wumpus 5y agoBlack holes change as their accretion disks rotate. If I recall correctly, that timescale is months for M87* and hours for Sgr A*.
- goodcanadian 5y agoFair enough. I suppose you can't even directly benefit from increased exposure times. However, tracking the dynamics seems valuable (as I assume you are doing).
- codethief 5y ago> Sgr A* does have a lot of stuff in the way, and it's intrinsically fainter than M87*, but we will eventually publish about it. Any estimate on when this might happen? :) I've been checking the EHT blog for pictures of Sgr A* for years.
- belter 5y agoNot to diminish from the great work of the EHT, but keep in mind what "picture" means here and also in the context of their original work: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28000578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28000578
- codethief 5y agoI'm fully aware of that and read (or at least skimmed) the original papers, thank you :)