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[PICTURE] First ever black hole image released

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Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy.

It measures 40 billion km across - three million times the size of the Earth - and has been described by scientists as "a monster".

The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world.

Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Prof Heino Falcke, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, who proposed the experiment, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87.

"What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said.

"It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe."

The image shows an intensely bright "ring of fire", as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by superheated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth.

The edge of the dark circle at the centre is the point at which the gas enters the black hole, which is an object that has such a large gravitational pull, not even light can escape.

The image matches what theoretical physicists and indeed, Hollywood directors, imagined black holes would look like, according to Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London - who is part of the collaboration.

"Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions about the nature of space and time, and ultimately of our existence," he said.

"It is remarkable that the image we observe is so similar to that which we obtain from our theoretical calculations. So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again."

But having the first image will enable researchers to learn more about these mysterious objects. They will be keen to look out for ways in which the black hole departs from what's expected in physics. No-one really knows how the bright ring around the hole is created. Even more intriguing is the question of what happens when an object falls into a black hole.

What is a black hole?


-A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape its gravity
-Despite the name, they are not empty but instead consist of a huge amount of matter packed densely into a small area
-There is a region of space beyond the black hole called the event horizon. This is a "point of no return", beyond which it is impossible to escape the gravitational effects of the black hole

Prof Falcke had the idea for the project when he was a PhD student in 1993. At the time, no-one thought it was possible. But he was the first to realise that a certain type of radio emission would be generated close to and all around the black hole, which would be powerful enough to be detected by telescopes on Earth.

He also recalled reading a scientific paper from 1973 that suggested that because of their enormous gravity, black holes appear 2.5 times larger than they actually are.

These two previously unknown factors suddenly made the seemingly impossible, possible. After arguing his case for 20 years, Prof Falcke persuaded the European Research Council to fund the project. The National Science Foundation and agencies in East Asia then joined in to bankroll the project to the tune of more than £40m.

It is an investment that has been vindicated with the publication of the image. Prof Falcke told me that he felt that "it's mission accomplished".

He said: "It has been a long journey, but this is what I wanted to see with my own eyes. I wanted to know is this real?"

No single telescope is powerful enough to image the black hole. So, in the biggest experiment of its kind, Prof Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is director of a project that set up a network of eight linked telescopes. Together, they form the Event Horizon Telescope and can be thought of as a planet-sized array of dishes.

Each is located high up at a variety of exotic sites, including on volcanoes in Hawaii and Mexico, mountains in Arizona and the Spanish Sierra Nevada, in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and in Antarctica.

A team of 200 scientists pointed the networked telescopes towards M87 and scanned its heart over a period of 10 days.

The information they gathered was too much to be sent across the internet. Instead, the data was stored on hundreds of hard drives that were flown to a central processing centres in Boston, US, and Bonn, Germany, to assemble the information. Prof Doeleman described the achievement as "an extraordinary scientific feat".

"We have achieved something presumed to be impossible just a generation ago," he said.

"Breakthroughs in technology, connections between the world's best radio observatories, and innovative algorithms all came together to open an entirely new window on black holes."

The team is also imaging the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

Odd though it may sound, that is harder than getting an image from a distant galaxy, more than five light-years away. This is because, for some unknown reason, the "ring of fire" around the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is smaller and dimmer.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592
 
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Nothing escapes a black hole. Not even light.
Universe is so wonderful.

Our universe is so big that human minds can never measure it. The closest galaxy to us Andromeda Galaxy will aparently collide with our Milky way galaxy and everything (including earth) will destroy. Andromeda travelling at 140 km/sec towards us. Even with that speed it will take 5 billion years collide. So imagine how big it is...mind blowing stuff.

Also, as we know universe is getting bigger every second and everything moving apart from each other since big bang. But still Andromeda is moving towards our galaxy due to a force which still is a mystery. Aparently the force is derived from black holes.
 
Our universe is so big that human minds can never measure it. The closest galaxy to us Andromeda Galaxy will aparently collide with our Milky way galaxy and everything (including earth) will destroy. Andromeda travelling at 140 km/sec towards us. Even with that speed it will take 5 billion years collide. So imagine how big it is...mind blowing stuff.

Also, as we know universe is getting bigger every second and everything moving apart from each other since big bang. But still Andromeda is moving towards our galaxy due to a force which still is a mystery. Aparently the force is derived from black holes.

I hope humanity survives long enough to have a visual of the 2 galaxies meeting. From what I read, it will take millions of years when both galaxies combine to form a new galaxy. Earth may or may not be part of solar system. It could be dragged away by a bigger star and can get destroyed. Scary.
 
Never understood what is space-time. Space I know is real, but time is just a concept isn't it?
 
awesome discovery!

I hope humanity survives long enough to have a visual of the 2 galaxies meeting. From what I read, it will take millions of years when both galaxies combine to form a new galaxy. Earth may or may not be part of solar system. It could be dragged away by a bigger star and can get destroyed. Scary.

although the number of stars in the galaxies is immense, the ratio of occupied space to empty space is immense. if the earth survived that long we would see the night sky light up with a lot more stars.

the likelihood of the earth being ripped from the suns orbit is minimal, a star large enough to do that would likely take our sun along with it too, not taking into account the fact that life (as it is currently) would be unable to survive even being moved 30 or 40 percent away from or closer to our sun.

Never understood what is space-time. Space I know is real, but time is just a concept isn't it?

the same way you can move in space, you can move in time. the closer to the speed of light you get the slower time becomes, light itself experiences no time. extremely dense objects bend space (gravity) and time (by speeding up things that get caught in their gravitation)

hope that rough explanation helps to paint a very basic picture.
 
We've seen the fist ever picture of a black hole today, ladies and gentlemen, here is the picture of the world's 2nd blackhole known to mankind!

Capture.JPG
 
Never understood what is space-time. Space I know is real, but time is just a concept isn't it?

Space and time are intimately connected, they are different properties of the same thing. Time runs in a direction you can’t point to - I heard it described as the vector that entropy increases along.
 
I need to see some more evidence before I take this photo seriously :)

Come one guys, I'm only saying what people are thinking :)
 
View attachment 90364

Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy.

It measures 40 billion km across - three million times the size of the Earth - and has been described by scientists as "a monster".

The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world.

Details have been published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Prof Heino Falcke, of Radboud University in the Netherlands, who proposed the experiment, told BBC News that the black hole was found in a galaxy called M87.

"What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System," he said.

"It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe."

The image shows an intensely bright "ring of fire", as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by superheated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth.

The edge of the dark circle at the centre is the point at which the gas enters the black hole, which is an object that has such a large gravitational pull, not even light can escape.

The image matches what theoretical physicists and indeed, Hollywood directors, imagined black holes would look like, according to Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London - who is part of the collaboration.

"Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions about the nature of space and time, and ultimately of our existence," he said.

"It is remarkable that the image we observe is so similar to that which we obtain from our theoretical calculations. So far, it looks like Einstein is correct once again."

But having the first image will enable researchers to learn more about these mysterious objects. They will be keen to look out for ways in which the black hole departs from what's expected in physics. No-one really knows how the bright ring around the hole is created. Even more intriguing is the question of what happens when an object falls into a black hole.

What is a black hole?


-A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, not even light, can escape its gravity
-Despite the name, they are not empty but instead consist of a huge amount of matter packed densely into a small area
-There is a region of space beyond the black hole called the event horizon. This is a "point of no return", beyond which it is impossible to escape the gravitational effects of the black hole

Prof Falcke had the idea for the project when he was a PhD student in 1993. At the time, no-one thought it was possible. But he was the first to realise that a certain type of radio emission would be generated close to and all around the black hole, which would be powerful enough to be detected by telescopes on Earth.

He also recalled reading a scientific paper from 1973 that suggested that because of their enormous gravity, black holes appear 2.5 times larger than they actually are.

These two previously unknown factors suddenly made the seemingly impossible, possible. After arguing his case for 20 years, Prof Falcke persuaded the European Research Council to fund the project. The National Science Foundation and agencies in East Asia then joined in to bankroll the project to the tune of more than £40m.

It is an investment that has been vindicated with the publication of the image. Prof Falcke told me that he felt that "it's mission accomplished".

He said: "It has been a long journey, but this is what I wanted to see with my own eyes. I wanted to know is this real?"

No single telescope is powerful enough to image the black hole. So, in the biggest experiment of its kind, Prof Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is director of a project that set up a network of eight linked telescopes. Together, they form the Event Horizon Telescope and can be thought of as a planet-sized array of dishes.

Each is located high up at a variety of exotic sites, including on volcanoes in Hawaii and Mexico, mountains in Arizona and the Spanish Sierra Nevada, in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and in Antarctica.

A team of 200 scientists pointed the networked telescopes towards M87 and scanned its heart over a period of 10 days.

The information they gathered was too much to be sent across the internet. Instead, the data was stored on hundreds of hard drives that were flown to a central processing centres in Boston, US, and Bonn, Germany, to assemble the information. Prof Doeleman described the achievement as "an extraordinary scientific feat".

"We have achieved something presumed to be impossible just a generation ago," he said.

"Breakthroughs in technology, connections between the world's best radio observatories, and innovative algorithms all came together to open an entirely new window on black holes."

The team is also imaging the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

Odd though it may sound, that is harder than getting an image from a distant galaxy, more than five light-years away. This is because, for some unknown reason, the "ring of fire" around the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is smaller and dimmer.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873592

dont our own galaxy have a black hole? if yes then why not take its picture instead of taking picture of black hole in another galaxy? would be more clear
 
dont our own galaxy have a black hole? if yes then why not take its picture instead of taking picture of black hole in another galaxy? would be more clear

Scientists did take a picture. But it seems the Blackhole at the center of our Milkyway Galaxy (SGRA*) is a midget when compared to M87 Blackhole in the OP. Watch the video from 2:45s.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S_GVbuddri8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Our universe is so big that human minds can never measure it. The closest galaxy to us Andromeda Galaxy will aparently collide with our Milky way galaxy and everything (including earth) will destroy. Andromeda travelling at 140 km/sec towards us. Even with that speed it will take 5 billion years collide. So imagine how big it is...mind blowing stuff.

Also, as we know universe is getting bigger every second and everything moving apart from each other since big bang. But still Andromeda is moving towards our galaxy due to a force which still is a mystery. Aparently the force is derived from black holes.

The Holy Quran 51:47
And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander.
 
Scientists did take a picture. But it seems the Blackhole at the center of our Milkyway Galaxy (SGRA*) is a midget when compared to M87 Blackhole in the OP. Watch the video from 2:45s.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S_GVbuddri8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

nice video thanks; whenever "Event Horizon" name comes up I remember the movie with the same name, creepy
 
The Holy Quran 51:47
And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander.

So Muslims believe in Big Bang? The verse you quoted only says about expanding heaven. Where is Big Bang in it?
 
So Muslims believe in Big Bang? The verse you quoted only says about expanding heaven. Where is Big Bang in it?

  • Universe had a beginning is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 6:1
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.

The Holy Quran 36:81
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator.

  • Joined entity and their separation is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 21:30
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?

Is this separation is what Big Bang is? I dont know.
 
  • Universe had a beginning is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 6:1
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.

The Holy Quran 36:81
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator.

  • Joined entity and their separation is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 21:30
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?

Is this separation is what Big Bang is? I dont know.

The Holy Quran 6:1
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.

This is nothing new. Many religions claim that God created heaven and earth, darkness and light bla bla bla.. By the way, darkness cannot be created. It is the absence of light. You only create light and darkness automatically will be there. Clearly shows that God thinks that darkness is a thing when it is not a thing.

The Holy Quran 36:81
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator.

Huh! What?

The Holy Quran 21:30
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?
God did not create Heaven and Earth. Earth is part of heaven. We are floating in the heavens. So there is no question of separating Earth and Heaven.
 
The Holy Quran 6:1
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.

This is nothing new. Many religions claim that God created heaven and earth, darkness and light bla bla bla.. By the way, darkness cannot be created. It is the absence of light. You only create light and darkness automatically will be there. Clearly shows that God thinks that darkness is a thing when it is not a thing.

The Holy Quran 36:81
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator.

Huh! What?

The Holy Quran 21:30
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?
God did not create Heaven and Earth. Earth is part of heaven. We are floating in the heavens. So there is no question of separating Earth and Heaven.

it was not really a preaching post that you have to reply as refuting points lol; you ask a question as per Islam and I answered it as per my best knowledge of Islam; whatever you want to believe man
 
This is the actual image, you are seeing the zoomed in part hence it is blurry, see how the black hole is consuming everything around it


57190434_10157047776011772_617873681669947392_o.jpg
 
I am amazed by people who think that they are so special because they live on a tiny planet when the universe is so big that there are billions of planets like the Earth in our universe. The fun part is that our universe may not be the only universe. There may be unlimited number of other universes which we can't even observe. We are not even as significant as an ant on the scale of the cosmos and yet some of us think that the whole universe was created for them.
 
I am amazed by people who think that they are so special because they live on a tiny planet when the universe is so big that there are billions of planets like the Earth in our universe. The fun part is that our universe may not be the only universe. There may be unlimited number of other universes which we can't even observe. We are not even as significant as an ant on the scale of the cosmos and yet some of us think that the whole universe was created for them.

We think we are special because of religion and God tells us that he created everything and put him mana on it. We are all human centric.
 
We think we are special because of religion and God tells us that he created everything and put him mana on it. We are all human centric.

Created the entire universe when we live on a single planet in a galaxy with billions of stars and then there are billions of other galaxies each containing billions of more stars and that is just the matter we can see which is barely 32% of the entire universe, the rest is dark energy?
 
If we actually stopped fighting each other and put our efforts into discovering the world and the universe around us, who knows how many other secrets we will unveil.

This is the type of news that should be on the front pages, none of that Kylie Jenner dropped a deuce and is now a billionaire nonsense.
 
Our universe is so big that human minds can never measure it. The closest galaxy to us Andromeda Galaxy will aparently collide with our Milky way galaxy and everything (including earth) will destroy. Andromeda travelling at 140 km/sec towards us. Even with that speed it will take 5 billion years collide. So imagine how big it is...mind blowing stuff.

Also, as we know universe is getting bigger every second and everything moving apart from each other since big bang. But still Andromeda is moving towards our galaxy due to a force which still is a mystery. Aparently the force is derived from black holes.

Hope nothing happening till the cricket world cup is over.
 
  • Universe had a beginning is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 6:1
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.

The Holy Quran 36:81
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator.

  • Joined entity and their separation is mentioned in Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran 21:30
Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?

Is this separation is what Big Bang is? I dont know.

We are safe from moulvis, anywhere, not even when talking about black hole.
 
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