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The idea that Interstellar "taught" us what black holes look like is way overblown and oversold. John-Pierre Luminet and others were drawing black holes back in

by bmitc 5y ago

The idea that Interstellar "taught" us what black holes look like is way overblown and oversold. John-Pierre Luminet and others were drawing black holes back in the 1970s. https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2018/03/07/45-years-black-hole-imaging-1-early-work-1972-1988/ https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2018/03/07/45-ye... https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2019/05/23/40-years-of-black-hole-imaging-2-colors-and-movies-1989-1993/ https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2019/05/23/40-ye... https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2019/06/12/40-years-of-black-hole-imaging-3-from-kerr-black-holes-to-eht/ https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2019/06/12/40-ye... > The current trend, the symetrical ufo-shape, is scientifically more accurate than the previous whirlpool but isnt perfect. It doesnt show the red/blue shifting. A bit of a technicality, but the frequency shifting would only occur for rotating black holes but not non-rotating black holes. However, as far as I understand, non-rotating black holes are assumed to not exist in reality.

sandworm101 5y ago
If we are getting an image, it is a rotating black hole. The light we see came from somewhere and didn't fall straight into the event horizon. Therefore it imparted some rotational energy as it dipped in and out. Therefore, any black hole emitting anything more than hawking radiation has at least some angular velocity.
- codethief 5y ago
  > Therefore, any black hole emitting anything more than hawking radiation What else does a black hole emit besides Hawking radiation? > Therefore it imparted some rotational energy as it dipped in and out. You're bringing up an interesting point. So any photon passing by a Schwarzschild black hole should actually set the BH in motion/rotation. Then again, I would expect these effects to cancel each other out, given a somewhat random distribution of incoming photons?
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> idea that Interstellar "taught" us what black holes look like is way overblown Teachers don’t invent mathematics when they teach addition, they distribute known knowledge. Interstellar absolutely taught many people a more-accurate image of a black hole. They did not discover Doppler beaming or the accretion disk’s wrap around, sure, but I haven’t seen that claim made explicitly as much as heavily implied.
- bmitc 5y ago
  Taught was maybe a bad word choice. If you watch the promotional materials for Interstellar, you get a strong implication that they were the first to show what a black hole looks like, but that is not the case. People have picked up on that on that vibe and think that the tech behind the movie gave us the first pictures. There certainly was an evolution there, but it wasn't the start of it. No doubt Interstellar popularized and helped re-energizze discussions about black holes, especially since it came out just before LIGO started making discoveries, which propelled things even further.
7thaccount 5y ago
https://www.wolfram.com/customer-stories/academy-award-visuals-mathematica-wolfram-language.en.html https://www.wolfram.com/customer-stories/academy-award-visua... This has better background on it.

by bmitc 5y ago

sandworm101 5y ago

If we are getting an image, it is a rotating black hole. The light we see came from somewhere and didn't fall straight into the event horizon. Therefore it imparted some rotational energy as it dipped in and out. Therefore, any black hole emitting anything more than hawking radiation has at least some angular velocity.

codethief 5y ago
> Therefore, any black hole emitting anything more than hawking radiation What else does a black hole emit besides Hawking radiation? > Therefore it imparted some rotational energy as it dipped in and out. You're bringing up an interesting point. So any photon passing by a Schwarzschild black hole should actually set the BH in motion/rotation. Then again, I would expect these effects to cancel each other out, given a somewhat random distribution of incoming photons?

JumpCrisscross 5y ago

> idea that Interstellar "taught" us what black holes look like is way overblown Teachers don’t invent mathematics when they teach addition, they distribute known knowledge. Interstellar absolutely taught many people a more-accurate image of a black hole. They did not discover Doppler beaming or the accretion disk’s wrap around, sure, but I haven’t seen that claim made explicitly as much as heavily implied.

bmitc 5y ago
Taught was maybe a bad word choice. If you watch the promotional materials for Interstellar, you get a strong implication that they were the first to show what a black hole looks like, but that is not the case. People have picked up on that on that vibe and think that the tech behind the movie gave us the first pictures. There certainly was an evolution there, but it wasn't the start of it. No doubt Interstellar popularized and helped re-energizze discussions about black holes, especially since it came out just before LIGO started making discoveries, which propelled things even further.

7thaccount 5y ago

https://www.wolfram.com/customer-stories/academy-award-visuals-mathematica-wolfram-language.en.html https://www.wolfram.com/customer-stories/academy-award-visua... This has better background on it.