At https://phys.org/news/2022-05-astronomers-reveal-image-black-hole.html … this story even got on to the BBC news programmes so the press releases must have been coming thick and fast. This is the first image of what they say is a black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy – otherwise known as Sagittarius A. It is billed as the first visual evidence of the black hole, as captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, an array that links together 8 different radio observatories around the world, in order to form a single ‘earth sized’ virtual telescope. Note to reader. It is a virtual telescope not a real up to your eyeball telescope, and these are radio observatories.
We are told there were simultaneous press conferences in different countries. No wonder the BBC was dragged in by their lapels. The result, we are told, provides overwhelming evidence the object is indeed a black hole. However, we are then told, that we cannot actually see the black hole. It is completely dark. Glowing gas around it is a telltale signature, we are informed. A dark centre, like the liquorice centre of one of those round Basset liquorice allsorts, usually surrounded by pink or yellow confection. This is represented by the glowing ring of gas that is rotating around, or with, the black hole. The press release further says, ‘we were stunned by how well the circle of the ring agreed with predictions based on Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, the holy grail of mainstream. The findings were published in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The link provides further links to the various articles and authors of the research.
See also https://phys.org/news/2022-05-snapping-black-hole-eht-super-telescope.html … this link provides more information about the telescope array, consisting of radio observatories in Arizona, Mexico, Chile, Spain and France, with an outlier on Hawaii. Nothing from the large land masses of Russia or China. Nothing from Africa or Australia. Yet it is said to be powerful enough to spot a golf ball on the moon. This is a network of radio observatories designed to detect light emitted when matter is thought to disappear into the black hole, on the basis the process of absorbing matter produces energy, and therefore light. The radio observatories are designed to capture the flash of light. This is thought to occur at what is called the event horizon. Basically, the ring of electrified gas, or plasma, that surrounds the mouth of the black hole. We are told the reseachers were able to see the silhouette of a black hole against a glowing background of ionised gas and dust. The cloud of matter swirling around at the event horizon.
The cloud of matter swirling around the black hole, it continues, is only visible using a very precise band of radion frequencies known as millimetric waves, and only by using a radio telescope. They are compared to a TV satellite dish.
Finally, at https://phys.org/news/2022-05-milky-black-hole.html … a spokeswoman on future research on black holes, with a bit on the maths and algorithms involved in the process.
The following day there was another batch of information on the Milky Way black hole. At https://phys.org/news/2022-05-nonsensical-black-holes-simulation-library.html … where we learn that to giuve meaning to the radio observatory info it was necessary to compare it with black hole simulations. This explains why it is the spitting image of black hole simulations that pop up on the internet, sourced from journal research. An intriguing claim is that the black hole has a magnetic field slightly stronger than a refrigerator magnet. This, they say, is strong enough to push away nearby gas and dust. The gas falling towards the mouth of the black hole forms a disc, the doughnut ring. The glowing disc is made up of super heated gas and charged particles. Plasma. The disc rotates in the same direction as the black hole, even though the black hole is actually invisible. Only some of the material is actually swallowed by the black hole. Most of it escapes. This is of course a new idea, invented to explain the evidence that a lot of material is being pumped away from the mouth of the projected black holes.
There is also a library of simulations of black holes – and thousands of data sets. A lot of work went into producing them, using super computers. It is said to contain information on how plasma interacts with magnetic fields around a black hole. Rather, it postulates a whole range of possibilities that involve the production of different simulations of what a black hole looks like, hence the library. A library of possibilities, and theories. The simulations are designed using super computers to solve magneto hydrodynamic equations, which reveal the movement of material and energy around black holes within dramatically warped space and time. These simulations are similar to simulations used to understand air flow around aircraft in flight. In the case of black holes they factor in extreme forces of gravity as described in Einstein’s general relativity, interacting between magnetic fields and plasma. No mention of electricity, even though they are really talking about electromagnetic activity. The processes involved in creating the simulations is laid out and described at the link. One is left wondering if they are leaving something out. That is, the assumption at the heart of their simulations. Do black holes really exist. One could describe the silhouette as something akin to a sun spot, but on a galactic scale.
At https://phys.org/news/2022-05-black-hole-scientist-donuts.html … on the possibility of ever more black hole doughnut rings.
At https://phys.org/news/2022-05-black-hole-longer.html … black hole winds are no longer as powerful as they were in the early universe.