First ever photo of a black hole to be revealed this week:

[beecee]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-07/black-hole-first-ever-photograph-could-be-unveiled-this-week/10979244

The first-ever photograph of a black hole might be unveiled this week. Here's what it could tell us: 

Scientists are expected to unveil the first-ever photograph of a black hole this week.

If they do, it will mark a major breakthrough in astrophysics and could provide new insight into the giant celestial monsters.

Here's what we know about the announcement so far.

When will it happen?

The US National Science Foundation says it will announce during a press conference "a groundbreaking result" from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project.

The announcement is scheduled to take place on April 10 at 9:00am (Washington time), which will be Wednesday night in Australia.

Simultaneous news conferences are also scheduled in Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.

extract:

 

The research will put to the test one of the pillars of science — physicist Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity — according to University of Arizona astrophysicist Dimitrios Psaltis, project scientist for the EHT.

That theory, put forward in 1915, was intended to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.

"The shape of the [black hole's] shadow will be almost a perfect circle in Einstein's theory," Dr Psaltis said.

"If we find it to be different than what the theory predicts, then we go back to square one and we say, 'Clearly, something is not exactly right'."

Another account.......

https://newatlas.com/giant-dust-donut-galaxy-black-hole/59168/

Gigantic dusty donut around a black hole imaged for the first time:

4 PICTURES

An illustration of a torus around an active galactic nucleus, which has been imaged directly for the first time(Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

What do radio galaxies, quasars, blazars, Seyfert galaxies and active galactic nuclei all have in common? Everything, it turns out: These are all different names for the same celestial objects viewed from different angles. Now, for the first time astronomers have directly imaged the last piece of the puzzle that ties them all together – a dusty donut of material that surrounds a supermassive black hole.

more at link.....

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Exciting times ahead, irrespective of findings I suggest! [And yet we still have troubled souls, pushing personal agendas, claiming the incalcitrance of science! 

Edited April 8, 2019 by beecee

[beecee]

E-Mailed a Professor Tamara Davis Professor, and Vice-Chancellor Research and Teaching Fellow, at the University of Queensland in Australia after her appearence on a Q+A show last  night. Her reply....

"Dear Barry, 

Astrophysicists are always looking for new theories to try to improve on the old, and this is one new theory amongst many.  Interestingly the paper predicts that an image of the supermassive object at the centre of our galaxy should vary with time (on the order of 20 mins, p38 of https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1402-4896/aa93a8/pdf).  Such an image is expected to be released by the Event Horizon Telescope very soon, so I guess we’ll find out if that prediction holds!

Tamara"

Edited April 9, 2019 by beecee

[Theoretical]

This Wednesday: "Simultaneous news conferences are scheduled in Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo."

Any predictions? It'll be interesting if a black hole isn't a black hole.

[beecee]

41 minutes ago, Theoretical said:

This Wednesday: "Simultaneous news conferences are scheduled in Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo."

Any predictions? It'll be interesting if a black hole isn't a black hole.

The only argument as far as I know, is on the quantum nature of the EH and information paradox etc. I doubt there will be any evidence saying BH's per se,  do not exist.  If I'm wrong, then we probably have something even more bizarre to explain the effects we observe.

52 minutes ago, Theoretical said:

Any predictions? It'll be interesting if a black hole isn't a black hole.

Let me add that whatever the verdict/validation/invalidation, it's just another example of science, the scientific method and the continued progress, based on further and technically more sound, observational and experimental data. That's how science works.

[LaurieAG]

Seriously I hope it's nothing like yesterdays Xkcd cartoon.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/eht_black_hole_picture.png

Spoiler

Because that's almost the exact same problem I had after I captured my avatar image in a feedback loop around 20 years ago. In my case the 'Save As' box stuffs up the feedback loop (and any subsequent images) after the first screen is captured.

 

[Endy0816]

Think we'll be seeing the accretion disc. Sheer distance we're managing to resolve finer details at is really impressive.

[Strange]

6 hours ago, Endy0816 said:

Think we'll be seeing the accretion disc. Sheer distance we're managing to resolve finer details at is really impressive.

Don't get your hopes too high! Astrophysicist Katie Mack has a short Twitter thread on this. She warns:

Quote

don’t hold out hope for more than a handful of pixels

Also, the intention is to actually image the event horizon itself, rather than the accretion disk:

 

[beecee]

It seems there has been some confusion re the claim of taking a photo of a BH. From previous information and cosmological knowledge, I imagined they were speaking of the inner most stable orbital parameter of an accretion disk. It get more complicated then that, and actually more towards the EH parameters. 

the following excellent explanatory video explains....