Astronomers are, apparently, going to try and photograph a Black Hole. A specific black hole - the one at the center of the galaxy. (I wonder if it'll get its own Facebook photo album? Would it exist if it doesn't..? :-) )
But one bit of the article didn't make sense:
[...] General relativity predicts that the swirl of dust and gases around a black hole—which is all the telescope will be able to see, since the hole itself is, of course, black—should form a perfect circle. If it looks even slightly distorted, we may have to rethink parts of Einstein's important theory.Black holes [have] spin. That means, just like the Earth and every other spinning planet and star, there's likely to be a bulge along its equator. I don't think a totally even distribution of energy and/or matter in the black hole is even possible; which is what it would need if it was to form a perfect sphere?
Oh well. What do I know? :-)
Added: Michelle, on FB, pointed out that they're talking about the Event Horizon. Which is the (theoretical) outer limit of what you can see about a black hole. Thanks, Michelle!
Carolyn Ann
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