5 Reasons Why Astrophysicists Care About Imaging a Black Hole
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- The image of M87's supermassive black hole released by the Event Horizon Telescope on April 10th 2019 is not just a pretty picture. Here I run down 5 reasons why we care about this result and what more it can help us understand.
00:00 Introduction
00:30 - 1 - The first glimpse of an event horizon 00:30
03:43 - 2 - Testing General Relativity
06:25 - 3 - Testing how black holes grow
07:53 - 4 - Small scale = large scale
10:07 - 5 - Proof of concept
13:40 - What's next?
15:46 - Bloopers
Here are the academic journal papers released with the image (free access): iopscience.iop.org/journal/20...
My Direct Collapse Black Hole video: • Unsolved Mystery in Ph...
Katie Bouman's TED talk on the computer algorithm used to produce the image: www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouma...
My appearance on Channel 4 News (!): • First ever image of bl...
If you have questions you want me to answer either tweet them to me ( / drbecky_ ) or leave them in the comments below. I'm more likely to see stuff on Twitter!
Please subscribe if you haven't already and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
I also present videos on Sixty Symbols: / sixtysymbols
and Deep Sky Videos: / deepskyvideos
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Dr Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist researching galaxies and supermassive black holes at Christ Church at the University of Oxford.
Twitter: / drbecky_
drbecky.uk.com - Věda a technologie
![What's the probability that two stars collide when galaxies collide? [with equations!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_dZUNAZI2eg/mqdefault.jpg)
Why I love Dr. Becky:
1. Knowledge...she knows her stuff
2. Enthusiasm...you can tell she loves what she does
3. Curiosity...you can see she is always learning
4. Example ...she is the perfect role model for young people interested in STEM
5. Cute...as a button.
Jupp. She is awesome. On the other hand highlights just how much of a pathetic failure I am
she knows fuck all
She's a great ambassador for science and not just for young women. Boy do we need people like her now...
@@dogstar167 She has a Ph.D. - I am critical of a college education for everyone but a Ph.D. in Astrophysics still speaks for itself and you are an idiot.
You forgot beautiful eyes! 😍😯😍
I'm turning into spaghetti rn
Dr Becky.... Thanks for making all this technical material all the more approachable. Your enthusiasm for the topic is evident.
I concur about that. And her explanation about the shape and dark/ light spots I never thought about. Thank you for this.
I love that professional astrophysicists use XKCD's visualization of the scale of M87*.
Holy hell, is it a real Arioch I see?
@@Harradrush No, it is a Unicorn
I love how you can be a, "professional," without inventing anything! I love how you people believe in cartoons and you believe the person showing them to you are something more than idiots. Professional astrophysicists!! Ha! Earth is flat, you halfwits!
@@KennedyWalker
Please collect your Nobel prize then! Oh...right. That pesky "proof" thing that seems to elude each one of you flEarthers. The concept you don't understand because you see 0.000000000001% of the whole and just assume the rest, and then insult anyone who doesn't agree with your assumption. Proof is a thing poor Kennedy Walker, and it's what you do not have. Yet there is a mountain of evidence that the world is, in fact, FRIGGING ROUND.
What next? Some giant man in the sky that keeps track of everything everyone does but doesn't care enough to do anything about it?
Oh...right. Plenty of feely-good 'proof' for that one too. :D
The moon can easily be used to disprove your ridiculous claims. The moon reflects the light allowing you to track the sun all hours of the night and it's not even close. You believe the sun and moon are 90 degrees from what they are. Self-evident AND obvious fact. && Tonight's perfect to refute my claim. Good luck.
Yeeessss! Finally a video that really puts this into perspective. Not only did you explain why the image looks the way it does but you also explained why so many people are so absolutely ecstatic about this image. I’m still in awe that humanity has imaged a freaking *black hole*.
Also loved the Black Hole song at the end. You’ve clearly derived the formula for country music. Publish!
Brandon James Sorry its not a black hole... its a plasma Taurus
James MacLean Sorry I think you meant it’s a plasma torus. But I think the rest of the world will still refer to it by the name of the thing that caused all the ruckus; the black hole.
The image of a Black Hole is something I thought I'd NEVER SEE in my lifetime!!!
I cried when they released this picture!! I still have it saved to my camera roll. What an incredible accomplishment to have taken that picture!
My best friend was a physicist and we would stay up all night talking about black holes and galaxies forming and gravity, but he died. I really like your channel because it sort of fills a small part of that void. Also that sneeze was much smaller than the build up made it seem...... :p
Becky is my hero ! I was never interested in Astrophysics and now probably my next project in data science would be somewhere around understanding of quantum gravity.
Thanks for taking the time to do this properly. Wayyy too many videos on YT about this have come out since last week, yours is the first one I've watched. Really don't mind waiting!
Finally, I've been avoiding all the other channels and articles waiting for this video to hear from you Dr. Becky. Now I have my bedtime story, just need to come home first :-) Thank you for making time to do this for us.
Awww. That was sweet.
Brown dwarfs are more like puffed up planets that have accreted material. Stars condense from clouds of cold molecular gas collapsing. They grow in different ways.
I suppose a brown dwarf could gain enough material to become a star but it would never be more than a Red Dwarf.
@@TheInselaffen Two ways brown dwarfs are formed. From stellar dust/gas (like real stars) and the other type formed from planetary dust after the parent star has formed. So some brown dwarfs are failed stars while others are just massive Jupiters orbiting a parent star
"There's nothing more sexy but a smart woman interested into science."
- by me, 2019.
:)
@@TheInselaffen Aristotle fan?
I really enjoy Dr. Becky’s style of teaching.
I was majoring in astrophysics years ago and I loved it, but one day, the dean pulled me in and told me that I wasn’t good enough to be hired as an astronomer. He said I was good, but since the competition to be a full time astronomer is so fierce , I should consider being an engineer. That was some of the best advice I ever received. I now work in the space program.
It’s people like Dr. Becky that I’m in awe of. Not only intelligent, but also very capable of teaching others.
You did so well on channel 4 news and I think the presenter genuinely enjoyed interviewing you. Well done
I'm glad you spent the time to polish your video rather than rushing it out. Was worth the wait :o)
THANK you for the 5 TIMESTAMPS in the notes for each reason!!!
Love this video. You did the best job of explaining what we are seeing in the picture. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Every time I see the scale of the black hole my mind kind of melts, it is just so large, and we are so painfully small. Great video, thank you so much for taking the time to make it :)
This is a great video. I'm enjoying going thru your archives. This video answered a couple of questions I had, or didn't even know I had until you brought up a topic and answered right away or gave a theory to. Thanks for that! In particular the jets coming from the black hole. What a wonderous time for science.
Brilliant summary of last week's exciting news.. thank you Dr Becky!
Audio is great here. Thanks for putting this together.
I had no idea you have your own channel. I'd only seen you on Brady's channel(s) It's cool to see your personality and excitement about a big moment in science. Thanks for the information. I'm glad there are so many working scientists who want to share with the public.
I’m glad I discovered this channel. Cheers, Dr. Becky
Fantastic and fascinating video as always. Also loving the upgraded audio
Super duper good to see your show!
Dr Becky I'm not an astrophysicist, but I do enjoy the fruits of their and your labors. I was extremely excited when the pictures first came out. I also am aware of how friggin difficult it was and what these pics meant. You have my undying respect for your work. Cheers!
I am actually the most accomplished astronomer on earth and I can assure you, this clown should just stop talking.
@@KennedyWalker Don't make light of clown school. It can be very taxing to be hated so much when you just want the world to be happy...
@@wyvvernstone Maybe the clown should get a real job then.
@@KennedyWalker Yeah you're probably right....Barnum and Bailey's shut down and all the good jobs went out with elephant dung. Maybe becoming professional internet troll is a good money maker..
@@wyvvernstone I'd stick with your wheelhouse. Clowns are about your level.
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour"
Thank you Dr. Becky for linking Messier 87 with a poem by William Blake in an earlier video. It's a fitting frame of mind for the vast human and cosmic scales behind the image of M87*
Judge, Thank you for writing out that lovely poem.
It touched my heart, as it does every time I hear it read aloud.
I swear I wrote Josef!
I did not notice it autocorrect to Judge. Sorry!!
Dr. Becky, I've been binge watching your videos over the last week. Thanks so much for the effort and study you put into sharing these concepts with us! Your work inspires me to follow physics and astronomy more closely. I have a decent background in Newtonian physics due to my work as an accident reconstructionist (using time/distance, momentum equations and the like) to piece together serious injury and fatal vehicle accidents. However, what you are sharing want me to move further with my education and work within education or research fields. Can't wait to see more!
Your presentation is just so enjoyable to listen to. I love your channel!
I subscribed to your channel after seeing you on C4 news last week. You're inspiring me to want to go back an retake A level physics. Keep up the excellent videos.
The waiting definitely paid off, despite having known about a few of these points. I didn't know about the twisted magnetic fields, for example, so today I already learned something new during breakfast! ;-)
Also I really like the picture before the actual video! :-)
(oh, and never stop putting outtakes at the end, seeing you singing some astrophysical lyrics is gorgeous!
Love your show. Take your time. It's worth it.
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me to get through the pandemic!
Very interesting! I just found your channel while watching videos about the black hole. I'm definitely subscribing! I very much enjoyed your animated style. I can see that you are very enthusiastic about the material, which is contagious! Thanks you! Have a great day! 😊💕👍👍
Thanks Rachel! Glad you enjoyed and thanks for subbing 🤗
Well done Dr Becky. Your TV appearance was classic. Love your channel. Keep it Up
Excellent video Dr. Becky!
Thank you for this video and the explanation! I'd love to spend a whole day talking to you and asking questions about the universe... that would be out of this world!
Really great explanation in terms of detailing and not getting too mathy
Looking forward to hearing more of your commentary on new research! :)
Thank you Dr. Becky, very cool!
Re: 06:31 "the material in that accretion disc will eventually fall into the black hole". If I remember correctly, I think only around 1/700th of it will fall in, the rest will likely be radiated out as energy (mostly EM and perhaps a tiny fraction as gravitational)
This is a question I’ve asked. Does any matter ever cross the event horizon? I suspect nothing but light can ever get that far. The huge majority of matter just gets ripped into pure energy and blown outwards.
@@davidelliott5843 As far as we know, but yeah, so 1/700th becomes part of the black hole, the rest remains in the accretion disc, getting kicked about into various unstable orbits as it is slowly churned to plasma or other more exotic states, or is radiated away via polar magnetic jets, gamma rays, etc. There are still so many questions, though, it boggles the mind.
This is an amazing area of physics to be studying or working in right now - and this is where I think someone is going to eventually find a way (_the_ way?) to resolve quantum mechanics with general relativity. Hopefully within this century, because I’d love to still be around when it happens.
Thank you for the video and perspective.
I'm not disappointed that your's is a week later. There were some excellent early vids that talk about the pic and why it looks the way it does (I like Veritasium's best). No need to compete with those. I like that you were able to take a step back and talk about why it's important. Yes, we all knew that Einstein nailed it, but some of the other reasons are really interesting. I didn't think about that it gives information about how black holes grow and interact with their environment. The ability to use that data to test simulations is *huge*! Thanks for digging past the headlines!
That sneeze was one of the purest things I've ever seen.
The rest of the video was great too though.
Very dramatic thumbnail!
Beautifully explained.
16:20, Bless you! As for the rest, interesting video, the physics of black holes is just mind bending!
Cool stuff. The future looks really interesting!
thx Dr Becky...well done...and audio perfect
Love your little tune at the end. Black hole blues would be a great concept album!
Excellent teaching. You're the only one among a multitude of experts to superimpose a sketch of solar system including voyager for size comparison!! M87 is scary huge!!
Great material as always, thanks.
The Bloopers : Bless you and thank you for a great video :-)
Thanks for making great educational content and putting it on the internet.
That picture of the black hole reminded me when the Voyager 1and 2 images were released! The awe and wonder of seeing something for the first time. Simply awesome!
Great post. Thanks Doc!
That over-the-shoulder thumbnail shot... you’ve learned a lot about production from Brady 😂
It’s supposed to emulate the promo for Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why - not sure how many people got that reference yet...
Aww... it went over my head 😅
@@ltdowney Mine too, I don't have Netflix. I really like the profile shot though, it caught my attention.
love her enthusiastic talks
Excellent overview.
Amazingly well explained, Subscribed !
love your enthusiasm!
This is a great video, especially the "human" aspects at the end. I guess Astrophysicists are like real people that sneeze too! My hope is that kids will watch this and see themselves learning about how the Universe works like you are doing, or figuring out the techniques and materials to do these things, or otherwise expanding the field of human knowledge.
Thank you for explaining this.
Thanks ive seen a lot of videos of the black hole image and this has been by far the more didactic I’ve seen. Plus it helps having such a beautiful astrophysicist explaining it! Black holes have been always a mistery and still are but now we know for sure their real. On another
Wow. Einstein was way too beyond his time.
Imagine what he could have done with the technology and ability to gather information we have today if he was around now
Thank you Dr Becky, i do not consider myself very smart but after seeing this in the news, i pondered that the mass black holes swallow even crushed down to nothing was still adding to the size of black holes and this is why they become super massive. Thank you for confirming my thoughts.
Thanks, Dr. Becky! You're a shining light in the chaos of darkness! Keep it up!
Thank you for the video, Dr. Smethurst. It'll be interesting to see where this takes us. I'm thinking we could make good use of the Lagrange points to build an even BIGGER radio telescope. Imagine the possibilities.
Sagitarius A Star has a much smaller event horizon than M87 black hole; it's harder to resolve the image even though it's much closer.
That sneeze was legit the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Thanks, love your passion.
What's amazing of this picture is that for all intents and purposes it could've been just a point or disk of light, like a regular star, proving a flaw in the GR Theory. But no, there is a clear depiction of a black disk, depicting the event horizon and cementing the GR Theory for good.
Awesome Astrophysicist sneeze too! WOW :-) Great video.
Wow This is a wonderful explanation of the relevance of this famous "picture". I do believe this cosmically beautiful coincidence of being alive in 2019, due to all the discoveries humankind is making in astrophysics, is not only amazing in itself but is also vital for the knowledge that future generations will be able to use to understand how and why this universe works the way it does, to discover the real meaning of the mysteries that surround us and the ones that we have not even thought about. By the way, just by watching this entire video I know I love your channel, so you just gained one more subscriber. I deeply appreciate that you take the time to spread this kind of knowledge, for it helps me understand more about what is my biggest passion: astrophysics. I am currently a freshman in Physics and hope to be as knowledgeable as you when I get my master's degree in astrophysics in some years from now. It would be a pleasure to meet you and talk to you in person some day. Greetings from Costa Rica! :D
Thanks. That was a great explanation.
+1 for the xkcd plug. ;)
Now I'm impressed. Awesome..Great Job Lady's.
Thank you so much. Very clear.
The picture wasn't
Thanks for this Dr B'
I really like you videos as explain the subject so well.
Thank you Miss!
Ah, linking xkcd.
I see you are a woman of culture as well.
:D
where? I don't see it.
expchrist ... One of the diagrams is from XKCD.
awful meme 0.1/10
A person of culture, or a cultured person?
Love the graphic showing how large it was.
Hi Dr Becky! Your wonderful personality shines through as always. As an Uncle to 7 girls I'd like to thank you for being such a wonderful role-modelfor alll the young ladies out there with a passion for science.
If I may ask a question, what is your take on the Electric Universe theories? There does seem to be something to it. Plasma cosmology has had quite a few predictions that turned out to be correct. Thanks for your time and I look forward to next vid :)
I've had more of my questions about black holes answered in 15 minutes through your video than in years of watching different documentaries about the subject. Thank you! It's insane how these documentaries just repeat the same basic information ad nauseam and for example never even mention exactly HOW they think the jets contribute to star formation, they just say they do and that's it.
That image always vaguely reminds me of the _space pods_ from the motion picture *2OO1: A SPACE ODYSSEY.*
Dr Becky, you are my favourite astrophysicist.
Hi dr. Becky, love your presentations. Have gone back to look at episodes that I have missed. I had a question: Had you ever read the book “Ringworld”. From 1971 and the talk about the radiation wave heading out from the center of the galaxy. SciFy that I thought you might enjoy
Dr. Becky, you are one of my Science Heroes.
Yeah one of the journal papers released along with the picture as well as John Michael Godier's interview with Dr. Feryal on Event Horizon both mention the timescale variability as the biggest challenge to overcome model wise though other factors particularly that processing the data for M87* apparently got a significant head start as M87 isn't visible from Antarctica so there was no need to wait for the observations at the South Pole Telescope. The latter bit was a surprise to me apparently ALMA as the big game changer for the M87* image, I guess the south pole was mainly needed to view Sag A*?
THanks for this video
Very cool. Thanks.:)
Hey Dr. Becky. I've heard that the E-ELT will be equipped with a spectrometer called CODEX that will be able to resolve radial velocity differences as small as 2.5 cm/sec. That's about what you would need to detect an exoplanet of half Earth's mass at the outer edge of the habitable zone of a G0 star (M/Ms=1.05) with an orbital inclination of 45 degrees. In other words, a spectrometer with that resolution would, if the light environment were noiseless, be able to detect most of the potentially habitable planets that orbit observable lower main sequence stars. But is the signal-to-noise ratio really going to be good enough to make that much Doppler resolution useful? The star's rotation will broaden its spectral features by far more than 2.5 cm/sec, and additionally convective motions in the star's photosphere will blur them. (Instead of having clearly defined rotationally broadened edges, the features will "fade out" toward both red and blue.) The Doppler signal might be swamped by Doppler noise. If that's true, then how do the astronomers plan to work around the noise problem? In the best scenario, what would be the probability of detection for an exoplanet, and what would be the probability of false alarm?
waited for your comment on the release for some time. glad it is here.
it is not much of a discovery and more a confirmation. Discoveries won't the outcome of such a massive effort.
I like the idea of getting another release, of "our" supermassive blackhole soon.
how do you personally like the choice of fake color used here ? the orange... I question it.
would we ever be able to use a blackhole to slighshot light and look back at our planet but in the past?
if light cannot escape. it does fall in and increase the energy within the singularity, or does it turn into mass? as there is no speed of light present is mass and energy equal within the blackhole? I would love to find out in the next few decades.
I love that the new computational image algorithms will be published. single frame super resolution and multi frame superresolution is something I am deeply interested in. I am very sceptical about any deep learning efforts into synthesizing pixels or new censors. I work with low resolution photography myself and can understand the aproach my head can see texture and contexture in a 120x160 image because it has seen the very texture with it's own eyes. It also applies to other wavelength than just visible light. But it is limited to me. I am working on a zine right now to share my photography and I am really excited to get feedback as all images there were taken by me with the subject seen in full natural eye resolution. Other will have difficulties to bridge the gab.
I have seen the TED talk about the EHT imaging algorithm in like 2017 and go swayed by her presentation. In 2-3 years when I studied CS+EE I might look at it differently.
as intermediate mass blackholes are good theory, I would love to see one of these by the half of this century, if they aren't we will at least have better resolution by using either real telescope arrays in heliocentric orbit(to have baselines of earth orbit) and capture times of 2-3 years.
I hope to get resutls in my favorite wavelenght the "N band" 8-14 micron.
Awesome Channel! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Your impression of Michael Collins is the best thing ever! lol :D
Having arrived late to the game, I don't have the luxury of watching this in sequence - I'm struck watching this and discussion of gravity and Einstein at the contrast with your interview at CERN with one of the particle physicists and he said in the context of the Standard Model and work to be done, that "we don't do anything with gravity - it's just too weak."
It fills in my knowledge of the programing involved in data training the interpolation algorithm, which some are trying to scant as "a few lines of code." You don't weigh programming by the pound ;)
Found this channel very interesting. Before this youtube channel, I've been always wondering why youtube provides a playback speed. Now I'm happy that I can listen at x 0.75 speed and it is perfect. Thanks to author and to youtube .
Question: if the image was computed by removing "noise" out of the data and fitting it to a model, how do we know that the black hole actually looks like that and we didn't just overfit it to the models with thought it should look like?
Samuel Fortin There is a video on CZcams of a talk Dr Bouman gave where she addressed this and other issues. Basically, they generated an average image based on 4 different analysis methods that used pretty different assumptions/ways to smooth out the noise and fill in the gaps. And they all wound up in pretty much the same place at the end. So it seems fairly robust to those assumptions. Check it out - the talk was mostly non-technical/accessible and she is a good speaker who clearly knows her material.
The methods used basically give the image a framework to start from, but then the gazillion data points they collected overwhelm that starting point. (Highly glossed over attempt to explain Bayesian models here).
I would love to see space based telescopes at Earths Lagrange 4 and 5. This would be an epic scale telescope.
Holy crap! It’s been 2 years already!
Excellent reasons.
And belated gesundheit.
9:12 what are these ripples or rings near the center the image? they seem to extend out for a long ways
I love her PhD sign in the desk!