5 ms·
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 a
by alkonaut 5y 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 5y agoMost 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 5y agoI 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 5y agoMost 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 5y agoThe 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.
- LandR 5y ago> the black hole was 55 million light-years old. It is 55 million light-years away. Are these not basically the same thing ?
- ianai 5y agoI always took the pushback against the original photo to be from a very vocal fringe. But if people want better images of astrophysical observations they should express their support for increasing that funding accordingly. Physics needs huge, expensive, long term projects to expand our knowledge. And those projects will lead to this we can’t imagine at the outset and there will be jobs for many along the way. (Jobs for the best and the brightest and don’t boil down to getting people to buy things from advertisements.) I’d love to see more research into expansion of the periodic table and a telescope that could utilize the suns gravitational lensing to resolve far off objects, to cherry pick a couple.
- belter 5y agoMaybe that is not what @JohnJamesRambo was talking about. You do realize it's not a photo?
- wumpus 5y agoAmong my VLBI colleagues, we used to call these things "maps", but now we mostly say "images". "photo", while rare, is not considered wrong.
- belter 5y agoThe EHT Director during the announcing conference... "...We have seen, and taken a picture, of a Black Hole." Video at the correct time: https://youtu.be/lnJi0Jy692w?t=456 https://youtu.be/lnJi0Jy692w?t=456 Let's not even talk about how it come up with that color, or the fact that in reality there are four different images, corresponding to the different four teams that worked with the same data, and the project then decided to publish only one, "averaged" from the four. ;-)
- wumpus 5y agoI'm glad you've read enough to realize how that image was made, but we did publish a lot more than just the one image. The raw data will be published eventually. Thanks for being interested in our data.
- belter 5y agoSorry if I upset the team. But I don't think it was ok to let the image being published in the front of all newspapers worldwide, and forgot to mention the color comes from the libraries used to compose the "map". It would be equally scientifically correct if you used a blue color or white, since it was a completely arbitrary choice. I know it defeats from the "picture" story, but just was too much overlooking for my taste. I want to see how "creative" the new release will be.
- 5y ago
- devoutsalsa 5y agoFuzzy donut… I’m laughing. I thought it was super cool, in a super heated has kind of way.
- wumpus 5y agoI like calling it the "angry orange bagel".
- doliveira 5y agoConsidering the image was seen by half of mankind, I'd say PR wasn't an issue.
- me_me_me 5y agoThey have found water on mars... again. I really hope this is not yet another PR announcement that will fade into past quicker then the time it took to announce it.