Scientists Ready To Photogtraph A Black Hole.

The most dangerous objects in the Universe

Recently, astronomers, physicists and scientists from related fields convened in Arizona. from across the world to discuss something out of this world.

Its an endeavor that only a few years ago would have been regarded as nothing less than outrageous. The conference is organized by Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, and Daniel Marrone, an assistant professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory.”Nobody has ever taken a picture of a black hole,” Psaltis said. “We are going to do just that.”

“Even five years ago, such a proposal would not have seemed credible,” added Sheperd Doeleman, assistant director of the Haystack Observatory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who is the principal investigator of the Event Horizon Telescope, as the project is dubbed. “Now we have the technological means to take a stab at it.”

First postulated by Albert Einstein‘s Theory of General Relativity, the existence of black holes has since been supported by decades’ worth of observations, measurements and experiments. But never has it been possible to directly observe and image one of these maelstroms whose sheer gravity exerts such cataclysmic power they twist and mangle the very fabric of space and time.

“Black holes are the most extreme environment you can find in the universe,” Doeleman said. The field of gravity around a black hole is so immense that it swallows everything in its reach; not even light can escape its grip. For that reason, black holes are just that –emitting no light whatsoever, their “nothingness” blends into the black void of the universe. So how does one take a picture of something that by definition is impossible to see?

English: Albert Einstein, official 1921 Nobel ...

Einstein postulated black holes


By imaging the glow of matter swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge of the point of no return and plunges into the abyss of space and time, scientists can only see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow.


Even though the black hole suspected to sit at the center of our galaxy is a supermassive one at four million times the mass of the Sun, it is tiny to the eyes of astronomers. Smaller than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun, yet almost 26,000 light years away, it appears about the same size as a grapefruit on the moon.


To that end, the team is connecting up to 50 radio telescopes scattered around the globe, including the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) on Mt. Graham in Arizona, telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) in California. The global array will include several radio telescopes in Europe, a 10-meter dish at the South Pole and potentially a 15-meter antenna atop a 15,000-foot peak in Mexico.




Comprising 50 radio antennas itself, ALMA will function as the equivalent of a dish that is 90 meters in diameter, and become what Doeleman called “a real game changer.” “When ALMA comes online, it will double our resolution.”

“The EHT will bring us as close to the edge of a black hole as we will ever come,” the participating scientists wrote in a project summary.



First page from the manuscript explaining the ...

First page from the manuscript explaining the general theory of relativity


Black holes remain among the least understood phenomena in the universe. Ranging in mass from a few times the mass of the Sun to billions, they appear to coalesce like drops of oil in water. Most if not all galaxies are now believed to harbor a supermassive black hole at their center, and smaller ones are scattered throughout. Our Milky Way is known to be home to about 25 smallish black holes ranging from 5 to 10 times the Sun’s mass.




Each telescope will record its data onto hard drives, which will be collected and physically shipped to a central data processing center at MIT’s Haystack Observatory. Bringing together radio telescopes around the globe requires an equally global team effort.


Provided by University of Arizona/Physorg



Buzz Aldrin’s(second man on the moon) mother’s maiden name was “Moon”.
Did you know that astronauts cannot burp in space?



Dave says:

Hi Gordon

Good question and thanks for the posting. I am assuming you’re asking how ‘big’ in kilometers…. not how far away? Well, when we say 9.7 B solar masses it indicates the object will hold our Sun that many times. Our Sun is 1.4 billion million kilometres across so that might give you a comparison to work with.

Gordon says:

Hello Dave,

Marvelous news on the Mars water streams.

I can hardly wait for the new updates.

A question.

When you say a black hole is 9.7 billion solar masses,how far theoretically in kilometers is this monstrosity.

Kind Regards,