Why not take a picture of a closer black hole?












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There are closer galaxies than Messier 87 for sure, even ours! It sparked my curiosity that they went with one 53 million light years away. Is there a reason for this?






black-hole supermassive-black-hole event-horizon-telescope







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    $begingroup$


    There are closer galaxies than Messier 87 for sure, even ours! It sparked my curiosity that they went with one 53 million light years away. Is there a reason for this?






    black-hole supermassive-black-hole event-horizon-telescope







    share|improve this question







    New contributor




    Morgan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.







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      6








      6


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      $begingroup$


      There are closer galaxies than Messier 87 for sure, even ours! It sparked my curiosity that they went with one 53 million light years away. Is there a reason for this?






      black-hole supermassive-black-hole event-horizon-telescope







      share|improve this question







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      Morgan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      There are closer galaxies than Messier 87 for sure, even ours! It sparked my curiosity that they went with one 53 million light years away. Is there a reason for this?






      black-hole supermassive-black-hole event-horizon-telescope




      black-hole supermassive-black-hole event-horizon-telescope






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      asked 2 hours ago









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          2 Answers
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          4












          $begingroup$

          I was surprised too when I first heard they were trying to image M87's black hole.



          The short answer is because it's really, really big. It is 1500 times bigger (diameter) than our Sagittarius A*, and 2100 times farther away. This makes its apparent size about 70% of that of Sgr A*.



          A cursory search of wikipedia's List of Largest black holes shows that there's no other black holes with a combination of size and closeness greater than these two.



          A couple of other candidates are not too far off. Andromeda's black hole is 50x the size of ours, and at 100x the distance, it would appear half the size of Sgr A*. The Sombrero galaxy is 380 times farther way than Sgr A*, and has a black hole estimated to be 1 billion solar masses, which is 232 times Sr A*, resulting in an angular diameter about 60% of Sgr A*.



          There appear to be many other considerations to which black holes were chosen, as explained in this similar question. At a guess these would include how obscured each black hole is with foreground dust/stars etc, how active (and therefore bright) the nuclei are, and their inclination w.r.t earth affecting which observatories could observe them at which times.



          Edit: I've found another plausible candidate. NGC_1600 is 200 M light years away with a central black hole estimated to be 17 billion solar masses heavy. This would put it at about 40% the apparent diameter of Sgr A*.






          share|improve this answer











          $endgroup$





















            2












            $begingroup$

            There are a few criteria necessary to see a black hole with the event-horizons telescope. They are, in importance:




            • Active Feeding: you need a thick accretion disk with lots of matter accreting onto the black hole. M87 fits this criteria, and is a glut, consuming about 90 Earth masses a day.

            • Apparent size. Even though it is 15 million light-years away, M87 is 6.5 billion solar masses. Since the radius of the event horizon scales linearly with mass, it’s distance is made up for by sheer scale.





            share









            $endgroup$













            • $begingroup$
              The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
              $endgroup$
              – Ingolifs
              1 hour ago












            Your Answer





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            2 Answers
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            active

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            2 Answers
            2






            active

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            active

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            active

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            4












            $begingroup$

            I was surprised too when I first heard they were trying to image M87's black hole.



            The short answer is because it's really, really big. It is 1500 times bigger (diameter) than our Sagittarius A*, and 2100 times farther away. This makes its apparent size about 70% of that of Sgr A*.



            A cursory search of wikipedia's List of Largest black holes shows that there's no other black holes with a combination of size and closeness greater than these two.



            A couple of other candidates are not too far off. Andromeda's black hole is 50x the size of ours, and at 100x the distance, it would appear half the size of Sgr A*. The Sombrero galaxy is 380 times farther way than Sgr A*, and has a black hole estimated to be 1 billion solar masses, which is 232 times Sr A*, resulting in an angular diameter about 60% of Sgr A*.



            There appear to be many other considerations to which black holes were chosen, as explained in this similar question. At a guess these would include how obscured each black hole is with foreground dust/stars etc, how active (and therefore bright) the nuclei are, and their inclination w.r.t earth affecting which observatories could observe them at which times.



            Edit: I've found another plausible candidate. NGC_1600 is 200 M light years away with a central black hole estimated to be 17 billion solar masses heavy. This would put it at about 40% the apparent diameter of Sgr A*.






            share|improve this answer











            $endgroup$


















              4












              $begingroup$

              I was surprised too when I first heard they were trying to image M87's black hole.



              The short answer is because it's really, really big. It is 1500 times bigger (diameter) than our Sagittarius A*, and 2100 times farther away. This makes its apparent size about 70% of that of Sgr A*.



              A cursory search of wikipedia's List of Largest black holes shows that there's no other black holes with a combination of size and closeness greater than these two.



              A couple of other candidates are not too far off. Andromeda's black hole is 50x the size of ours, and at 100x the distance, it would appear half the size of Sgr A*. The Sombrero galaxy is 380 times farther way than Sgr A*, and has a black hole estimated to be 1 billion solar masses, which is 232 times Sr A*, resulting in an angular diameter about 60% of Sgr A*.



              There appear to be many other considerations to which black holes were chosen, as explained in this similar question. At a guess these would include how obscured each black hole is with foreground dust/stars etc, how active (and therefore bright) the nuclei are, and their inclination w.r.t earth affecting which observatories could observe them at which times.



              Edit: I've found another plausible candidate. NGC_1600 is 200 M light years away with a central black hole estimated to be 17 billion solar masses heavy. This would put it at about 40% the apparent diameter of Sgr A*.






              share|improve this answer











              $endgroup$
















                4












                4








                4





                $begingroup$

                I was surprised too when I first heard they were trying to image M87's black hole.



                The short answer is because it's really, really big. It is 1500 times bigger (diameter) than our Sagittarius A*, and 2100 times farther away. This makes its apparent size about 70% of that of Sgr A*.



                A cursory search of wikipedia's List of Largest black holes shows that there's no other black holes with a combination of size and closeness greater than these two.



                A couple of other candidates are not too far off. Andromeda's black hole is 50x the size of ours, and at 100x the distance, it would appear half the size of Sgr A*. The Sombrero galaxy is 380 times farther way than Sgr A*, and has a black hole estimated to be 1 billion solar masses, which is 232 times Sr A*, resulting in an angular diameter about 60% of Sgr A*.



                There appear to be many other considerations to which black holes were chosen, as explained in this similar question. At a guess these would include how obscured each black hole is with foreground dust/stars etc, how active (and therefore bright) the nuclei are, and their inclination w.r.t earth affecting which observatories could observe them at which times.



                Edit: I've found another plausible candidate. NGC_1600 is 200 M light years away with a central black hole estimated to be 17 billion solar masses heavy. This would put it at about 40% the apparent diameter of Sgr A*.






                share|improve this answer











                $endgroup$



                I was surprised too when I first heard they were trying to image M87's black hole.



                The short answer is because it's really, really big. It is 1500 times bigger (diameter) than our Sagittarius A*, and 2100 times farther away. This makes its apparent size about 70% of that of Sgr A*.



                A cursory search of wikipedia's List of Largest black holes shows that there's no other black holes with a combination of size and closeness greater than these two.



                A couple of other candidates are not too far off. Andromeda's black hole is 50x the size of ours, and at 100x the distance, it would appear half the size of Sgr A*. The Sombrero galaxy is 380 times farther way than Sgr A*, and has a black hole estimated to be 1 billion solar masses, which is 232 times Sr A*, resulting in an angular diameter about 60% of Sgr A*.



                There appear to be many other considerations to which black holes were chosen, as explained in this similar question. At a guess these would include how obscured each black hole is with foreground dust/stars etc, how active (and therefore bright) the nuclei are, and their inclination w.r.t earth affecting which observatories could observe them at which times.



                Edit: I've found another plausible candidate. NGC_1600 is 200 M light years away with a central black hole estimated to be 17 billion solar masses heavy. This would put it at about 40% the apparent diameter of Sgr A*.







                share|improve this answer














                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer








                edited 1 hour ago

























                answered 1 hour ago









                IngolifsIngolifs

                1,5721619




                1,5721619























                    2












                    $begingroup$

                    There are a few criteria necessary to see a black hole with the event-horizons telescope. They are, in importance:




                    • Active Feeding: you need a thick accretion disk with lots of matter accreting onto the black hole. M87 fits this criteria, and is a glut, consuming about 90 Earth masses a day.

                    • Apparent size. Even though it is 15 million light-years away, M87 is 6.5 billion solar masses. Since the radius of the event horizon scales linearly with mass, it’s distance is made up for by sheer scale.





                    share









                    $endgroup$













                    • $begingroup$
                      The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                      $endgroup$
                      – Ingolifs
                      1 hour ago
















                    2












                    $begingroup$

                    There are a few criteria necessary to see a black hole with the event-horizons telescope. They are, in importance:




                    • Active Feeding: you need a thick accretion disk with lots of matter accreting onto the black hole. M87 fits this criteria, and is a glut, consuming about 90 Earth masses a day.

                    • Apparent size. Even though it is 15 million light-years away, M87 is 6.5 billion solar masses. Since the radius of the event horizon scales linearly with mass, it’s distance is made up for by sheer scale.





                    share









                    $endgroup$













                    • $begingroup$
                      The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                      $endgroup$
                      – Ingolifs
                      1 hour ago














                    2












                    2








                    2





                    $begingroup$

                    There are a few criteria necessary to see a black hole with the event-horizons telescope. They are, in importance:




                    • Active Feeding: you need a thick accretion disk with lots of matter accreting onto the black hole. M87 fits this criteria, and is a glut, consuming about 90 Earth masses a day.

                    • Apparent size. Even though it is 15 million light-years away, M87 is 6.5 billion solar masses. Since the radius of the event horizon scales linearly with mass, it’s distance is made up for by sheer scale.





                    share









                    $endgroup$



                    There are a few criteria necessary to see a black hole with the event-horizons telescope. They are, in importance:




                    • Active Feeding: you need a thick accretion disk with lots of matter accreting onto the black hole. M87 fits this criteria, and is a glut, consuming about 90 Earth masses a day.

                    • Apparent size. Even though it is 15 million light-years away, M87 is 6.5 billion solar masses. Since the radius of the event horizon scales linearly with mass, it’s distance is made up for by sheer scale.






                    share











                    share


                    share










                    answered 1 hour ago









                    cmscms

                    2264




                    2264












                    • $begingroup$
                      The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                      $endgroup$
                      – Ingolifs
                      1 hour ago


















                    • $begingroup$
                      The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                      $endgroup$
                      – Ingolifs
                      1 hour ago
















                    $begingroup$
                    The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                    $endgroup$
                    – Ingolifs
                    1 hour ago




                    $begingroup$
                    The distance is about 50 million ly, I thought.
                    $endgroup$
                    – Ingolifs
                    1 hour ago










                    Morgan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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