Post: #1

Scientists using three telescopes spaced thousands of miles apart have caught the best look ever of the center of a distant quasar, an ultra-bright galaxy with a giant black hole at its core.

By linking powerful radio telescopes in Chile, Arizona and Hawaii together, astronomers created a deep-space observing system with 2 million times sharper vision than the human eye, which gave them the most detailed direct view ever of a supermassive black hole inside a galaxy 5 billion light-years from Earth.

The telescopes revealed a fresh look at the quasar 3C 279, a galaxy in the constellation Virgo that scientists classify as a quasar because it shines ultra-bright as massive amounts of material falls into the giant black hole at its core. The black hole is about 1 billion times the mass of the sun, with the linked-up telescopes providing details down to a resolution of 1 light-year or less, researchers said in an announcement today (July 18).

The new view used an astronomy technique called interferometry and marked "a remarkable achievement for a target that is billions of light-years away," researchers with the European Southern Observatory explained in a statement."The observations represent a new milestone towards imaging supermassive black holes and the regions around them."

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile is home to the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope used in the quasar study. The other two instruments included the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, and the Submillimeter Telescope in Arizona. [What Does Quasar 3C 279 Really Look Like (Video)]

By linking the three telescopes together, astronomers with ESO, the Onsala Space Observatory and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy used an observation method called Very Long Baseline Interferometry.

Here's how the interferometry method works:

In astronomy, larger telescopes can take sharper pictures or measurements of the universe. The interferometry technique allows astronomers to use multiple telescopes perform as if they were a single telescope, one that is as large as the distance between the different instruments. In Very Long Baseline Interferometry, astronomers seek to maximize the distance between telescopes to create the sharpest views possible.

For the new quasar study, astronomers created a huge triangle of telescopes on Earth using the three different instruments. The distance between the Chile and Hawaii telescopes is 5,870 miles (9,447 kilometers), with the baseline from Chile to Arizona extending across 4,458 miles (7,174 km). The baseline from Arizona back to Hawaii was 2,875 miles (4,627 km).

The telescopes also observed the quasar at extremely short wavelength, making it the shortest wavelength ever observed using such a large baseline array, researchers said.

Altogether, the telescope array was reached a resolution of just 8 billionths of a degree arc in the night sky. For comparison, your closed fist held out at arm's length covers about 10 full degrees in the sky.

ESO officials said the new look at quasar 3C 279 marks a major step forward for an even more ambitious interferometry-based project called the Event Horizon Telescope. That project aims to combine more telescopes to create an even more powerful very long baseline array, one that could ultimately reveal the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

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Post: #2

is this the glop telescope?

Post: #3

Love this kind of threads.

Are there pics @ link?

Post: #4

Galaxy  Wrote:

Love this kind of threads.

Are there pics @ link?

Not that I can see, other than this: http://www.space.com/31-black-holes-universe.html

Just an artists impression and video: http://www.space.com/16628-what-does-a-q...ssion.html

Post: #5

So which is true. Gravity Universe or the Electric Universe? Black Holes and "how gravity works" I thought were still just theories.

I have never seen a picture of a black hole that wasn't an artist's impression.

I am not saying there isn't black holes. I am trying to figure out which theory may be true. This article wasn't real clear that they actually witnessed a black hole. Though the headline for the article in the link says they did.

Post: #6

I found these images so far:

From about 12 years ago:




Gamma-ray image of the quasar 3C 279 taken by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) onboard the Compton Observatory satellite:




Another EGRET Image of 3C 279 and 3C 273:



I'll keep looking for newer images, hopefully the newest.

Post: #7

Here's a good image of the artist's impression I mentioned:

Post: #8

Pin worthy post!

Post: #9

I ran across this in the comments of one of the articles out there about
this:

"With only three baselines there isn't really an image. It gives size and brightness information on a relatively narrow range of length scales: a coarsely-sampled Fourier transform of the object's appearance."

So I guess no actual image, just data.

Post: #10

DrPostman  Wrote:

I found these images so far:

From about 12 years ago:




Gamma-ray image of the quasar 3C 279 taken by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) onboard the Compton Observatory satellite:




Another EGRET Image of 3C 279 and 3C 273:



I'll keep looking for newer images, hopefully the newest.

Maybe I am just to much a novice to understand, but are those pictures black holes? And if so, how can you tell they are?

Because if extreme gravity is in affect, then what is this gravity and how is it on super high mode. How can it be explained? These are the things that puzzle me.

The Electric theory bases all on electric/magnetism and can be explained. I am just stumped on why gravity/black hole theories are taken as fact when they still can't be explained.

It may seem like I am routing for one theory over the other. I am not. I just want facts to be facts and theories to be theories.

Post: #11

Thank you doc

Post: #12

Supabill  Wrote:

Maybe I am just to much a novice to understand, but are those pictures black holes? And if so, how can you tell they are?
Because if extreme gravity is in affect, then what is this gravity and how is it on super high mode. How can it be explained? These are the things that puzzle me.
The Electric theory bases all on electric/magnetism and can be explained. I am just stumped on why gravity/black hole theories are taken as fact when they still can't be explained.
It may seem like I am routing for one theory over the other. I am not. I just want facts to be facts and theories to be theories.

There are plenty of images of accretion disks that surround a black hole, but
you can't image the hole itself. Here's an example from the Hubble:

Post: #13

DrPostman  Wrote:

Supabill  Wrote:

Maybe I am just to much a novice to understand, but are those pictures black holes? And if so, how can you tell they are?
Because if extreme gravity is in affect, then what is this gravity and how is it on super high mode. How can it be explained? These are the things that puzzle me.
The Electric theory bases all on electric/magnetism and can be explained. I am just stumped on why gravity/black hole theories are taken as fact when they still can't be explained.
It may seem like I am routing for one theory over the other. I am not. I just want facts to be facts and theories to be theories.

There are plenty of images of accretion disks that surround a black hole, but
you can't image the hole itself. Here's an example from the Hubble:

Cool pics. Sorry for my ranting. After more thought, I guess my rant could have been in it's own thread. Thanks for the pics.

Post: #14

Supabill  Wrote:

So which is true. Gravity Universe or the Electric Universe? Black Holes and "how gravity works" I thought were still just theories.

I have never seen a picture of a black hole that wasn't an artist's impression.

I am not saying there isn't black holes. I am trying to figure out which theory may be true. This article wasn't real clear that they actually witnessed a black hole. Though the headline for the article in the link says they did.

I'll say it...THERE ARE NO BLACK HOLES

Post: #15

Cajun111  Wrote:

I'll say it...THERE ARE NO BLACK HOLES

You can, but there are thousands of scientists who can easily prove you wrong.