Astronomy Cast Ep. 526: Event Horizon Telescope and the Black Hole at M87

Join +Fraser Cain and +Pamela Gay for a live episode of Astronomy Cast. We'll record our 30-minute show, and then stay tuned for them to answer questions!

Today, of course, we're going to talk about the announcement from the Event Horizon Telescope and the first photograph of a black hole's event horizon.

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[davidmiller]

I had fell off and watching you guys for a whiledon't ask me why I kind of got busy with work and didn't watch a lot of YouTube. Then I remembered the name of y'all show

[TimeofDying]

I can't help but think of the black hole in Interstellar when I look at the image and note the similarities. I think they mostly got it right in that movie.

[brucehayman]

that's the first time I heard the angry clown imagery. I love that!

[animistchannel]

It seems odd that you and others are reporting the black hole image was taken in radio waves, but 1.2 mm is at the very short end of the microwave frequency range, right near the infrared boundary. What's up with that overlap in terminology? Is that the physics, communications, and astronomy people using slightly different boundary terms?

[buzzarD.]

That was short. We used to be termed anthropogenic. Now I can call us Buckrogersocene

[zapfanzapfan]

Rename it the Lunar Lithobraker Explorer...

[buzzarD.]

I think the AI got me, I meant the anthropocene

[madderhat]

So black holes have a light comb-over?

[madderhat]

The lander did not crash, the moon suddenly moved closer and hit the lander.