There it is. The first image of a black hole.
I hadn’t intended to write about this historic event, but it’s impossible not to. I don’t intend to try to describe it. Others do it much better than I can, see links below.
But from my point of view we are viewing history, this being an image you might tell your grandchildren about. Or they will read or see or listen or whatever mode they will be communicating years from now (that’s another story).
Planetologists might compare it the the first mind blowing image sent back from Mars Viking lander.
(First "clear" image ever transmitted from the surface of Mars – shows rocks near the Viking 1 lander (July 20, 1976).) NASA
This “leg on the moon” photo took my breath away when I viewed it as it was downloaded at JPL in Pasadena. It still does. I have a copy rolled up somewhere.
Biologists might compare the black hole photo to the controversial image of the DNA molecule taken by Rosalind Franklin and Ray Gosling
Astronomy is full of iconic images.
There’s Carl Sagan’s “pale blue dot..(where) every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives” on Earth as seen from Voyager I.
And thousands of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. Take your pick. I’ll go with Pillars of Creation.
NASA, Jeff Hester, and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University)
The New Horizon’s images of Pluto will certainly join them. Sorry can’t help myself.
So geek out with me this week about the photo of the black hole. It’s a game changer.
Never was so much importance attached to an image of what you can’t see.
=======================================
Links: