First-ever photograph of a black hole revealed

[47of74]

Science!

Quote

In April 2017, scientists used a global network of telescopes to see and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole, according to an announcement by researchers at the National Science Foundation Wednesday morning. They captured a "groundbreaking" image of the black hole at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

"We have seen what we thought was unseeable," said Sheperd Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. "We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole."

The supermassive black hole, known as a quasar, is growing so fast it can devour a mass the size of the sun every two days.

 

[Cartmann99]

Obligatory 80s music reference:

 

[littlemommy]

I was about 99% sure I would open this thread and the black hole would be a copy of Trump’s brain scan or a photo of his heart or something. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

It looks like a donut. ?

But this donut eats you! *insert mad scientist laugh*

[Briefly]

I think it's absolutely amazing.  There is still so much we don't know about the universe, we are only scratching the surface.

[AliceInFundyland]

I clicked on with the exact thought as little mommy. Then I remembered that I have read it before with the same thought.

OP has a history with questionable thread titles. It could honestly go any direction. Nice to be reminded of the scientific things too. I appreciate it.

[Beermeet]

I love space!  So freaking cool! 

[47of74]

I clicked on with the exact thought as little mommy. Then I remembered that I have read it before with the same thought.
OP has a history with questionable thread titles. It could honestly go any direction. [emoji4] Nice to be reminded of the scientific things too. I appreciate it.

Lol. Guilty. Hold my beer.

In this case it was pretty much the headline from the original article.

[danvillebelle]

And it was a woman at the helm. 

 

 

[Audrey2]

@danvillebelle, you beat me to it.

Let us use the name of Katie Bouman loudly and proudly. It was a woman who came up with the algorithm, allowing us to image the black hole. Too often, women's contributions to science are minimized or forgotten. 

[Ali]

3 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Let us use the name of Katie Bouman loudly and proudly. It was a woman who came up with the algorithm, allowing us to image the black hole. Too often, women's contributions to science are minimized or forgotten. 

I agree. I made the mistake of reading comments on an article about her accomplishment. A man was complaining that someone part her team was not getting more recognition and claimed a man allegedly wrote most of the lines of code. I am not a coder by profession. My husband is and I am a math major. One of my upper division math classes required me to write programs. The book had algorithms that I used that made the programming component much easier and it would have taken significantly longer to write the programs without them. Figuring out an algorithm is much more difficult than translating it to code in my opinion.

[47of74]

And of course the incel crowd and other internet douchebags had to weigh in.

Quote

Katie Bouman, a researcher who helped create the first image of a black hole, quickly gained internet fame Thursday for her role in the project after a photo of her went viral.

But internet trolls soon followed, questioning Bouman’s work and floating false claims that she did not have much of a role in the project. Colleagues rallied to her defense, but the situation highlighted the vitriol that women continue to face on the internet, and the continued vulnerability of major internet platforms to trolling campaigns.

Bouman’s public recognition — much of it applauding an example of a woman at the forefront of a major scientific effort — drew attention from misogynist communities on the internet. Some users congregated on Reddit and created videos questioning Bouman’s contribution that were then uploaded to Instagram and YouTube.

By Friday, falsehoods claiming it was not Bouman but a male colleague who deserved credit for the black hole image overtook legitimate coverage in search results on YouTube and Instagram.

I'd say to these fornicate sticks the following,

Hey guys?  You know why women don't want to have sex with you.  Likely because you're a bunch of sexist, ignorant douchebags.