The new BLACK HOLE image explained by an ASTROPHYSICIST | Your questions answered

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration just released the first ever image of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole (the same group that took the first ever image of a black hole in 2019 - the one in the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy). What do we learn from this image? Why is it orange? Why is it different to the M87 image? Why is it blurry? And can we observe the same thing with the James Webb Space Telescope?

Why yes this was filmed and edited in a single day. Thanks for noticing. Yes I am exhausted.

Read more about the newly released image here from @ESOobservatory: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2208-eht-mw/

Event Horizon Telescope collaboration (2022; Paper I) - https://iopscience.iop.org/art....icle/10.3847/2041-82
The plan to observe the galactic centre with JWST - https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/phase2-public/1939.pdf
TED talk on how computer algorithm to fill in the gaps works from Katie Bouman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvezCVcsYs


00:00 - Introduction
01:04 - How do we take images like this?
03:37 - How does this compare to the M87* image?
05:51 - Why is the image blurred?
08:30 - Why is it orange?
09:53 - What are the 3 bright blobs?
11:29 - What angle are we seeing this from?
17:07 - Will we observe this with JWST?
19:10 - Outro
19:36 - Bloopers

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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on *how* we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.

http://drbecky.uk.com
https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk