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Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #1
I'd call it advanced CGI -nothing more,nothing less!

Quote
Although the telescopes are not physically connected, they are able to synchronize their recorded data with atomic clocks — hydrogen masers — which precisely time their observations. These observations were collected at a wavelength of 1.3 mm during a 2017 global campaign. Each telescope of the EHT produced enormous amounts of data — roughly 350 terabytes per day — which was stored on high-performance helium-filled hard drives. These data were flown to highly specialised supercomputers — known as correlators — at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and MIT Haystack Observatory to be combined. They were then painstakingly converted into an image using novel computational tools developed by the collaboration.

https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
Finals, then 4 in a row!

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #2
Pretty amazing stuff. The young lady who came up with the crucial algorithm seems to be flying under the radar. Super effort Katie Bouman.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/10/black-hole-picture-captured-for-first-time-in-space-breakthrough

And a story from 2016 before the image was created :

http://news.mit.edu/2016/method-image-black-holes-0606

Here I was thinking we were talking about Carlton Football club and its uncanny ability to turn coaches and players into remnants of football people.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson


Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #4
CGI starts with man made data, usually generated from a CAD program as an STL file, it's not a measurement.

The effort is extraordinary, especially when you realise some media groups initially reported it wrongly as the black hole in our local galactic center about 100,000 light years away.

The image is the center of M87 53,000,000 light years away!

I read a crazy human analogy about the effort,
"It's equivalent to siting in a cafe in Paris, and reading a newspaper left on a table in New York!"

another analogy,

"Taking a Full HD photograph of a dough-nut somebody left behind on the moon!"
(That is if that wasn't all a conspiracy, the existence of moon dough-nuts! ) ;)

a joking analogy,
"Like feeling the flap of a butterfly's wings from the other side of the planet, but only if the planet is really round!"

On a more serious note, the way it's reported is misleading even when they correctly identify the source. The image actually shows the shadow cast by the central black hole, not the black hole or the black hole event horizon. You can think of it as a fog that dims the light surrounding the black hole!

However from measuring this shadow they get an indirect measure of the black hole itself and it's event horizon, as well as new ways to determine new or confirm old facts about things like relativity, dark energy and dark matter.
The Force Awakens!

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #5
CGI starts with man made data, usually generated from a CAD program as an STL file, it's not a measurement.

The effort is extraordinary, especially when you realise some media groups initially reported it wrongly as the black hole in our local galactic center about 100,000 light years away.

The image is the center of M87 53,000,000 light years away!

A read a crazy human analogy about the effort,
"It's equivalent to siting in a cafe in Paris, and reading a newspaper left on a table in New York!"

another analogy,

"Taking a Full HD photograph of a dough-nut somebody left behind on the moon!"
(That is if that wasn't all a conspiracy, the existence of moon dough-nuts! ) ;)

a joking analogy,
"Like feeling the flap of a butterfly's wings from the other side of the planet, but only if the planet is really round!"

On a more serious note, the way it's reported is misleading even when they correctly identify the source. The image actually shows the shadow cast by the central black hole, not the black hole or the black hole event horizon. You can think of it as a fog that dims the light surrounding the black hole!

However from measuring this shadow they get an indirect measure of the black hole itself and it's event horizon, as well as new ways to determine new or confirm old facts about things like relativity, dark energy and dark matter.

Ripper stuff, Spotted One. Thank you for that. I confess to being fascinated with all things science and the cosmos. My first and favourite toy was a telescope, second a microscope, third... well, that's another subject best left out of here, let's just say a healthy young lad's favourite toy!!!

I find the concept of a black hole absolutely captivating. I think I heard it described as if it were the size of a marble it would weigh about the same as the Earth! Holy mackerel. That's just about as much density there is between Andrew Bolt's ears! In one respect I'd love to live another 100 years just to observe the scientific discoveries, and perhaps experience space travel.





Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #6
Here I was thinking we were talking about Carlton Football club and its uncanny ability to turn coaches and players into remnants of football people.

 :)) :)) :)) you're in good form, three Leos. Another goodun.
Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #7
:)) :)) :)) you're in good form, three Leos. Another goodun.

Unfortunately it's all I've got at the moment.   We are a such a soft target at the moment like dr. Edelston minus viagra.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #8
Unfortunately it's all I've got at the moment.   We are a such a soft target at the moment like dr. Edelston minus viagra.

 :)) :)) :)) :)) you writing this stuff down! You gotta take your show on the road... the Melb International Comedy Festival needs your material... ;) ;) :)) :))
Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #9
CGI starts with man made data, usually generated from a CAD program as an STL file, it's not a measurement.

The effort is extraordinary, especially when you realise some media groups initially reported it wrongly as the black hole in our local galactic center about 100,000 light years away.

The image is the center of M87 53,000,000 light years away!

A read a crazy human analogy about the effort,
"It's equivalent to siting in a cafe in Paris, and reading a newspaper left on a table in New York!"

another analogy,

"Taking a Full HD photograph of a dough-nut somebody left behind on the moon!"
(That is if that wasn't all a conspiracy, the existence of moon dough-nuts! ) ;)

a joking analogy,
"Like feeling the flap of a butterfly's wings from the other side of the planet, but only if the planet is really round!"

On a more serious note, the way it's reported is misleading even when they correctly identify the source. The image actually shows the shadow cast by the central black hole, not the black hole or the black hole event horizon. You can think of it as a fog that dims the light surrounding the black hole!

However from measuring this shadow they get an indirect measure of the black hole itself and it's event horizon, as well as new ways to determine new or confirm old facts about things like relativity, dark energy and dark matter.

It's still CGI.
Finals, then 4 in a row!

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #10
It's still CGI.

Do you mean CGI in the literal sense of a "Computer Generated Image"?

A computer may display the data as a digital image but a computer did not generate the digital image, that is the key difference as far as I can tell! I realise it's a bit of a pedantic lexical ambiguity but that is just a problem of language.

If you were discussing an image produced by the earlier simulations, then CGI would be a correct way to describe it as the image is generated by the computer simulation. But the image is displayed is measurement data displayed as an image, the computer doesn't really generate the data it just displays it.

Another real achievement of this process is that the measurements confirm the accuracy of the simulations, those simulations are like a prediction based in maths and physics, somebody preemptively thought about it and got it right! The models/simulations take into account how stuff like Dark Energy and Dark Matter should work/interact but not what they are, 85% of the universe we cannot see but we indirectly detect, the real imaging and measurement matching the earlier simulation is a big deal for the reason it confirms we know how these things might interact on the large scale, and even if we do not know what they are we can still detect them! Smart Cookie, was it ours?
The Force Awakens!

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #11
More like computer processed image than computer generated image.
DrE is no more... you ok with that harmonica man?

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #12
More like computer processed image than computer generated image.

Yes, one is based on data, the other on imagination.
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?”  Oddball

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #13
Either way, it's still amazing and gives us specs of dust an insight into far off phenomena.

From 'seeing' far off worlds to teaching certain proteins to attack certain cancers in our bodies (rather than chemo) there certainly are some incredible things being discovered at present.

Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: Image of a Black Hole

Reply #14
It's still CGI.

If you type numbers into a calculator, did the calculator work out how to spit out the answer to you?
No, someone has programmed that calculator to take that input and give you the answer you want.
It follows strict guidelines on how to proceed with the information.

Same with this.

We've given all the data required to the computer and have programmed it to work out the answer (in this case a picture) for us.