5 ms·

ESO event on groundbreaking results from Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

72 points by mg 4y ago

heyitsguay 4y ago
So? Anyone hear anything through the grapevine?
- dvh 4y ago
  They found water on Mars
  - wumpus 4y ago
    The EHT observes supermassive black holes.
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    Isn't that already a foregone conclusion since we've found ice there? https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/solar-system/mars/water-ice/ice.cfm https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets...
- wumpus 4y ago
  I hope not. By the way, it's a global news conference, the ESO is one of many organizations involved.
  - wumpus 4y ago
    After 17 hours, it's curious that no one has upvoted me back to 1. Embargoes are important.
- polytely 4y ago
  Might be an image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy [0] 0: https://twitter.com/drbecky_/status/1519741886633758732 https://twitter.com/drbecky_/status/1519741886633758732
FBISurveillance 4y ago
Evidence of multiverse?
- FBISurveillance 4y ago
  Like there's an infinite number of universes that are like bubbles in boiling water: appear, expand, and then dissolve. Would be cool.
  - DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
    Plz - no more existential anxiety
    - mometsi 4y ago
      In its place comes cosmic trypophobia
    - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
      I suffer from a great deal of existential anxiety, dreading the day I cease to exist and lamenting the fact that I have only and will only see a tiny, insignificant slice of history and the future, but it's funny, once we're at the multiverse level it fades away again. Maybe it's too big for my chemical sludge to grasp? Not sure.
      - fsflover 4y ago
        Compare how much you know compared to those living in middle ages. Then try to actually understand all knowledge available to you.
      - effingwewt 4y ago
        I used to feel the same way.I didn't want to live forever to be alive forever but to get to see 'the rest of the story'. In probably 2008 I took some extremely potent hydroponic mushrooms. Having grown up with field shrooms I thought I could handle my typical 1/8-1/4 oz dose,despitey cousin advising me one gram would more than suffice. I had the quickest on set imaginable when ingesting something. Hadn't gotten down more than a few grams when I got smacked over the head. I looked at my tv (playing cartoon network) and went...away. Hours later I came back to myself and what had happened was hard to explain. I had risen ip through my head and proceeded until at the edge of what I guessed was the universe. As I felt myself hit a barrier I knew what I had to do. I had to shed my small, human consciousness as it was unable to contain what was out there. I remember doing that and then coming back. I had this incredible sadness as while out there I felt I had understood. It had all made sense, there was nothing to fear, all the knowledge was out there and for a bit I'd had it. Coming back to myself I had to remember how to be human- I am a human, I am a male, we communicate with language, etc. And all the while it felt so much like downgrading. Turns out I had been 'out there' for about 8+ hours. My poor cousin had gotten stuck ib my bathroom mirror and refused to speak kf his trip. After that I have almost a sense of expectation, as if this is hust something I have to go through to get 'there'. I hear nowadays much headway is being made in using psychedelics for therapy, maybe it would be something worth looking into, if you're into that sort of thing. I feel you on the anxiety, and whatever it may be, I hope you are able to not just cope but move past it. I know I still struggle occasionally, almost had a panic attack just yesterday and it had been over a year since I'd had one.
alkonaut 4y ago
intriguing. What would be a groundbreaking result in their area? What hypotheses are there in the field, that their observations could provide evidence for or against?
- Azrael3000 4y ago
  Most likely they imaged Sagitarius A* the black hole at the center of our milky way and will present this image. Some more info: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-are-about-to-make-a-massive-announcement-about-the-milky-way https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-are-about-to-make-a...
  - JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
    I would classify the last build up to the reveal of a fuzzy donut image to be a debacle and embarrassment for science. Not because the image wasn’t neat but because of the misguided PR campaign before the reveal when they knew damn well the image was not going to impress anyone outside of a tiny subset of astronomers and space buffs. The hyperbole in this press release seems to suggest they didn’t learn from their previous mistakes. https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/black-hole-photo-just-isnt-very-good.html https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/black-hole-photo-just-i...
    - capableweb 4y ago
      Most people I spoke to about the black hole photo was just as excited as anyone else, even though they maybe didn't understand the full implications. And if your argument boils down to "I mean, it’s just not that aesthetically pleasing" (like the article you linked to), I don't know what to tell you.
      - tecleandor 4y ago
        The corrections for the article are hilarious: Correction, April 10, 2019: Due to an editing error, this post originally misstated that the black hole is 6.5 million times the size of the sun. It has 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Correction, April 11, 2019: Due to an editing error, the post also originally misstated that the black hole was 55 million light-years old. It is 55 million light-years away.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
textcortex 4y ago
They already got some good results on Interstellar.
- devoutsalsa 4y ago
  I’d love to see the presenters troll the audience with a screenshot of interstellar, followed by an “oops, wrong slide “.
_Microft 4y ago
The actual title is "Press conference at ESO on groundbreaking Milky Way results from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration". Milky Way is one of the more important parts of that title because the first image of a blackhole that we got from the EHT [0] earlier was actually an image of the supermassive blackhole M87* in the center of another galaxy - Messier 87 [1]. I expect that they announce that they did the same measurements on the supermassive blackhole in our own galaxy, Sagittarius A* [2]. Beside that and as much fun as speculating about the content of the press conference might be, the announcement of an announcement is unfortunately just that [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A -> follow the link to the blackhole from there. The actual article has got a trailing * on its link and that does not properly linkify here. [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20announcement%20of%20an%20announcement&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- dang 4y ago
  > The actual article has got a trailing * on its link and that does not properly linkify here. Ah yes - that can seem like a bug in the URL parser, but the problem is that there are other cases where people put asterisks after links that shouldn't* be incorporated into the URL. So ultimately it's an ambiguity. In fact, I vaguely remember going through the corpus of HN comments, the last time I worked on the URL parser, to see which way trailing asterisks should be treated, and it turned out that "don't include them" was the more common case. (Or maybe I just imagined doing that.) In any case, for such occurrences I believe you can use angle brackets as parser hints and your URL should get linkified correctly: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*> Edit: yup! This is in https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc, as it happens.
  - _Microft 4y ago
    Thanks a lot for the explanation! It never occured to me that there might be more to links in angle brackets than personal style or habit of a commenter.
biorach 4y ago
Six. whole. days. away. Agh!
nolta 4y ago
There will be multiple press events around the world (Germany, Mexico, Chile, China, Taiwan, Japan, US): https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/event-horizon-telescope-collaboration-announce-groundbreaking-milky-way-results-may-12th https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/event-horizon-telesco...
- edf13 4y ago
  Isn't this what they did on the Armageddon movie?
fnordpiglet 4y ago
They discovered intelligent life on earth?

72 points by mg 4y ago

heyitsguay 4y ago

So? Anyone hear anything through the grapevine?

dvh 4y ago
They found water on Mars
- wumpus 4y ago
  The EHT observes supermassive black holes.
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  Isn't that already a foregone conclusion since we've found ice there? https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/solar-system/mars/water-ice/ice.cfm https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets...
wumpus 4y ago
I hope not. By the way, it's a global news conference, the ESO is one of many organizations involved.
- wumpus 4y ago
  After 17 hours, it's curious that no one has upvoted me back to 1. Embargoes are important.
polytely 4y ago
Might be an image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy [0] 0: https://twitter.com/drbecky_/status/1519741886633758732 https://twitter.com/drbecky_/status/1519741886633758732

FBISurveillance 4y ago

Evidence of multiverse?

FBISurveillance 4y ago
Like there's an infinite number of universes that are like bubbles in boiling water: appear, expand, and then dissolve. Would be cool.
- DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
  Plz - no more existential anxiety
  - mometsi 4y ago
    In its place comes cosmic trypophobia
  - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
    I suffer from a great deal of existential anxiety, dreading the day I cease to exist and lamenting the fact that I have only and will only see a tiny, insignificant slice of history and the future, but it's funny, once we're at the multiverse level it fades away again. Maybe it's too big for my chemical sludge to grasp? Not sure.
    - fsflover 4y ago
      Compare how much you know compared to those living in middle ages. Then try to actually understand all knowledge available to you.
    - effingwewt 4y ago
      I used to feel the same way.I didn't want to live forever to be alive forever but to get to see 'the rest of the story'. In probably 2008 I took some extremely potent hydroponic mushrooms. Having grown up with field shrooms I thought I could handle my typical 1/8-1/4 oz dose,despitey cousin advising me one gram would more than suffice. I had the quickest on set imaginable when ingesting something. Hadn't gotten down more than a few grams when I got smacked over the head. I looked at my tv (playing cartoon network) and went...away. Hours later I came back to myself and what had happened was hard to explain. I had risen ip through my head and proceeded until at the edge of what I guessed was the universe. As I felt myself hit a barrier I knew what I had to do. I had to shed my small, human consciousness as it was unable to contain what was out there. I remember doing that and then coming back. I had this incredible sadness as while out there I felt I had understood. It had all made sense, there was nothing to fear, all the knowledge was out there and for a bit I'd had it. Coming back to myself I had to remember how to be human- I am a human, I am a male, we communicate with language, etc. And all the while it felt so much like downgrading. Turns out I had been 'out there' for about 8+ hours. My poor cousin had gotten stuck ib my bathroom mirror and refused to speak kf his trip. After that I have almost a sense of expectation, as if this is hust something I have to go through to get 'there'. I hear nowadays much headway is being made in using psychedelics for therapy, maybe it would be something worth looking into, if you're into that sort of thing. I feel you on the anxiety, and whatever it may be, I hope you are able to not just cope but move past it. I know I still struggle occasionally, almost had a panic attack just yesterday and it had been over a year since I'd had one.

alkonaut 4y ago

intriguing. What would be a groundbreaking result in their area? What hypotheses are there in the field, that their observations could provide evidence for or against?

Azrael3000 4y ago
Most likely they imaged Sagitarius A* the black hole at the center of our milky way and will present this image. Some more info: https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-are-about-to-make-a-massive-announcement-about-the-milky-way https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-are-about-to-make-a...
- JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
  I would classify the last build up to the reveal of a fuzzy donut image to be a debacle and embarrassment for science. Not because the image wasn’t neat but because of the misguided PR campaign before the reveal when they knew damn well the image was not going to impress anyone outside of a tiny subset of astronomers and space buffs. The hyperbole in this press release seems to suggest they didn’t learn from their previous mistakes. https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/black-hole-photo-just-isnt-very-good.html https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/black-hole-photo-just-i...
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Most people I spoke to about the black hole photo was just as excited as anyone else, even though they maybe didn't understand the full implications. And if your argument boils down to "I mean, it’s just not that aesthetically pleasing" (like the article you linked to), I don't know what to tell you.
    - tecleandor 4y ago
      The corrections for the article are hilarious: Correction, April 10, 2019: Due to an editing error, this post originally misstated that the black hole is 6.5 million times the size of the sun. It has 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun. Correction, April 11, 2019: Due to an editing error, the post also originally misstated that the black hole was 55 million light-years old. It is 55 million light-years away.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

textcortex 4y ago

They already got some good results on Interstellar.

devoutsalsa 4y ago
I’d love to see the presenters troll the audience with a screenshot of interstellar, followed by an “oops, wrong slide “.

_Microft 4y ago

The actual title is "Press conference at ESO on groundbreaking Milky Way results from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration". Milky Way is one of the more important parts of that title because the first image of a blackhole that we got from the EHT [0] earlier was actually an image of the supermassive blackhole M87* in the center of another galaxy - Messier 87 [1]. I expect that they announce that they did the same measurements on the supermassive blackhole in our own galaxy, Sagittarius A* [2]. Beside that and as much fun as speculating about the content of the press conference might be, the announcement of an announcement is unfortunately just that [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A -> follow the link to the blackhole from there. The actual article has got a trailing * on its link and that does not properly linkify here. [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20announcement%20of%20an%20announcement&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

dang 4y ago
> The actual article has got a trailing * on its link and that does not properly linkify here. Ah yes - that can seem like a bug in the URL parser, but the problem is that there are other cases where people put asterisks after links that shouldn't* be incorporated into the URL. So ultimately it's an ambiguity. In fact, I vaguely remember going through the corpus of HN comments, the last time I worked on the URL parser, to see which way trailing asterisks should be treated, and it turned out that "don't include them" was the more common case. (Or maybe I just imagined doing that.) In any case, for such occurrences I believe you can use angle brackets as parser hints and your URL should get linkified correctly: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*> Edit: yup! This is in https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc, as it happens.
- _Microft 4y ago
  Thanks a lot for the explanation! It never occured to me that there might be more to links in angle brackets than personal style or habit of a commenter.

biorach 4y ago

Six. whole. days. away. Agh!

nolta 4y ago

There will be multiple press events around the world (Germany, Mexico, Chile, China, Taiwan, Japan, US): https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/event-horizon-telescope-collaboration-announce-groundbreaking-milky-way-results-may-12th https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog/event-horizon-telesco...

edf13 4y ago
Isn't this what they did on the Armageddon movie?

fnordpiglet 4y ago

They discovered intelligent life on earth?