4 ms·
Incredibly beautiful - I wonder how (and how long) it will be that we can get better real images of black holes, the most extraordinary objects we know to exist
by somewhereoutth 4y ago
Incredibly beautiful - I wonder how (and how long) it will be that we can get better real images of black holes, the most extraordinary objects we know to exist.
- spaetzleesser 4y agoIt will be very tricky to get better images. Black holes are very small and very far away.
- Ralfp 4y agoCurrent best bet is using our sun as gravitational lens, but with current technology it would take 2-3 decades to get satellites far enough (few times further than New Horizons is currently) for that to be possible.
- sandworm101 4y agoGravitational lensing is one option, but another is the Terrascope concept whereby the Earth's atmosphere would be used as a refractive lens. In theory, any atmosphere would do. It may even be possible to use Jupiter's outer atmosphere. As refraction is stronger than gravitational lensing, such schemes would not require multi-decade trips out focal points at edges of the solar system. https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.00490 https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.00490
- deeg 4y agoCan you explain why gravitational lensing is important?
- sandworm101 4y agoIt allows for star-sized telescoped, lenses bigger than stars that can focus objects very far away.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sandworm101 4y agoThe best bet in our lifetimes will be by luck. There is a chance that gravitational lensing of a distant object might give us a glancing view of a black hole if thing line up just perfectly. But the chances of this happening, and that we actually are looking at the right place/time, are very very small.