Black Holes PICO DE ORIZABA, Mexico — Sheperd Doneleman’s attempt to capture the first ever picture of a blackhole was unsuccessful.Black Hole Hunters: One thing was that his telescope continued to fillwith snow.
Two weeks ago, Volcan Sierra Negra (an extinct volcano at 15,000 feet, also known as Tliltepetl) was the nerve center of the largest telescope ever created. It is a network antennas that spans from Spain to Hawaii and Chile.
Horizon Telescope was named for the point
The Event Horizon Telescope was named after the point at which there is no return in a dark hole. Its job was to see what was previously unseeable. A tiny, small circle of nothing in the Milky Way’s center, it was called. Astronomers believe it is a supermassive dark hole. This trap door would allow the equivalent of four millions suns to escape.
Black Holes: Albert Einstein once stated that nature is not malicious but subtle. It loves a good fight
Dr. Doeleman, along with his team of astronomers, were greeted by lightning as they reached the summit of their post in the unfriendly skies late one night.
The air was as fresh and delicious as you would imagine it to be on Mars. Their heads were covered in snowflakes. The Large Millimeter Telescope was a tower 20 stories high with a 150-foot-wide antenna bowl. It was positioned on its roof like a large cocked cap.
The astronomers made a gentle step out of their cars onto a moonscape composed of rocks. They then walked down a ramp into the basement of the telescope, where they found a maze of labs and rooms that were warmly lit, almost as though they were entering the lairs of James Bond.
Dr. Doeleman planned to spend the night figuring out new ways to point the telescope. The telescope was plagued by an annoying, persistent electrical hum.
The radio dish had frozen to the point that it was barely visible below an inch of ice by the time the weather cleared. They kept their secrets intact as they whirled high above the storm clouds.
Black Holes: Dr. Doeleman, a 48-year-old researcher at M.I.T.’s
“This is par for the us,” Dr. Doeleman, a 48-year-old researcher at M.I.T.’s Haystack Observatory, and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said with a mixture of pride and resignation.
He and his colleagues will succeed if they are successful. The images they capture will be forever in textbooks as definitive evidence for Einstein’s strangest prediction: That space-time could wrap around large objects like a magician’s veil and disappear them from the universe.
That’s it. Black holes are objects so dense that no light can escape their maws. Space and time can end as soon as we see them.
They could also prove Einstein’s theory about gravity, general relativity and the rule of the universe need to be rewritten since its introduction 100 years ago.
“We’re swinging to the fences,” Dr. Doeleman said, after eight years of putting together this effort, in an office in Serdan. Serdan is a small village at the volcano’s summit.
To combat altitude effects, he was dressed in long johns with layers of sweaters and fleece and drank coca-leaf. After a long night of trying to fix his telescope, he was hot and sweaty. His hair was in an Einsteinian Mohawk.
He said that “We need to worry about everything,” ticking off the many things that make this radio network, which is stretched across the globe like a web, fragile. Success depends on weather conditions on many continents, high-strung technology and altitude. Two of his colleagues were just delayed by a car accident while on their way to Mexico City.
He said that spider silk was stronger than steel, but even so, it can snap.
Black Holes: The Cosmic Roach Motel
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity first revealed black holes in November 1915. They were among the most extreme predictions.
This theory explains gravity, which is the force that objects try to follow in a straight line across a universe where its geometry has been warped by energy and matter. This is why light beams and planets both follow curving paths like balls around a roulette wheel.
Einstein was stunned when Karl Schwarzschild pointed to the alarming prediction in the equations.
Einstein was shocked when Karl Schwarzschild (a German astronomer serving on the Russian front) pointed out that the equations contained an alarming prediction. Space-time would sag indefinitely if there was too much matter or energy. It could not be stopped by any force that science knows of.
Although Einstein couldn’t fault the math, he believed that nature would find a way to avoid such calamities in real life. Astronomers have agreed that space is sprinkled with large objects that emit no light a century later. These are cosmic roach motels. All of them check in, and never check out: stars, atoms, wisps gas, that trace their history back to the Big Bang.
Many of these stars are believed to be remnants of massive stars which have burnt out, collapsed, and imploded in cataclysms such as supernovae or even more violent gamma ray bursts.
Stephen Hawking is one of many generations of theorists who have used the telescope of their minds to study the properties of these objects. They are still debating about what happens in a black hole, and the fate of any objects that fall into it.
Black Holes: Galaxies Appear To Have One These Dark Monsters
Nearly all galaxies seem to have one of these dark monsters. They are millions, or even billions, of times larger than the sun and squat at their center like Dante’s devil. For some reason, the larger the galaxy, the bigger the void within it. How that happens is a cosmic nature-versus-nurture question, and anyone’s guess.
David Hughes, director of the Large Millimeter Telescope, asked, “How does a dark hole know how big a galaxie it is in?” Or, conversely, “How does it know when it should stop feeding itself?”
Black holes, left to their own devices, lie dormant without any human intervention. If something, such as a star or gas cloud, does fall towards a black hole it is heated to billions upon billions of degrees and swirls around in an accretion disc. Black holes are lazy eaters.
When they eat, they can squeeze radio energy and X-rays out of tubes made from accretion discs like toothpaste. Astronomers believe that this is the reason for the energies produced by quasars.
Black Holes: Cores Galaxies Far Outweigh Starry Cities
These bright beacons are found in the cores galaxies and far outweigh the starry cities they live in. Dr. Doeleman stated, “Paradoxically,” that black holes are some of the most brightest things in space.
This is the Story of the Event Horizon Telescope. It’s a synchronized network radio antennas that are as large as the Earth. Astronomers used it to get the first ever photograph of a black hole.
A crew of astronomers is using the Large Millimeter Telescope on a tall volcano in Mexico to attempt to capture the first image of a black hole. This telescope acts as the nerve center for a network of radio antennas that is as large as the Earth, the Event Horizon Telescope.
The network will be able to see details that are 2,000 times more detailed than the Hubble Space telescope. It will also be able to see through the cloud of dust and haze that covers the Milky Way galaxy’s heart. Astronomers have been following dozens of stars that circle a radio source called SagittariusA*, hidden in thick clouds of Sagittarius.
They have determined that the mysterious source is as heavy as four million suns by studying the orbits of the stars. Yet, it emits no visible lights. Scientists don’t know what this could mean if it isn’t a black hole. From Einstein’s calculations, and detailed computer simulations like the one used for “Interstellar,” we know what a dark hole should look like.
Black Holes : Horizon Telescope should be able to observe a small shadow
The Event Horizon Telescope should observe a small, circular shadow within the ring of radio emission at the center. Like a hungry shark, a black hole is lurking. Another black hole six billion times larger than the sun is in galaxy M87.
It is emitting X-rays, radio energy and other radiation hundreds of thousands of miles across intergalactic space. Astronomers believe that the dragon’s breath could stop the growth of galaxies surrounding them by cutting off gas flow that would otherwise be used to bake new stars.
It means that the visible universe is responding to the invisible beat of the dark side. This beat we are only beginning to understand.
Last winter, an astronomer team from Beijing University and Arizona announced they had found one of the most dangerous black holes ever discovered. It was 10 billion times larger than the sun. The quasar was anchoring a galaxy that was 40,000 times brighter that the Milky Way, back when the universe was just a billion years old.
All the action may not be so far away
Sagittarius A*, a faint source radio noise, is located at 26,000 light years from the center of Milky Way. U.C.L.A.’s Andrea Ghez, an astronomer who tracks the orbits and positions of stars around the center, has been able calculate that whatever is there has the mass four million suns. It emits neither visible nor infrared radiation.
This is not a black hole. Einstein and no one else know what it could be.
“That is the strongest evidence for an event horizon,” Dr. Doeleman stated, using the term for the boundary of the black hole, which is the edge that is at the point of no return.
However, this is only a circumstantial argument. Avery Broderick (theorist at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo Ontario) said that if Einstein were wrong, how would they know? He noted that general relativity, for all its mathematics beauty, has never been tested in extreme conditions such as the Big Bang and black holes where Einsteinian spacetime would be most bizarre.
According to research that dates back to a 1967 paper by James Bardeen, the Sagittarius dark hole would, if it was present, appear as a ghostly circle in a cloud of radio waves. Theorists believe that the exact shape of the black hole would depend on the speed at which it spins.
According to calculations made by Eric Agol of Washington, Heino Falcke of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, and Fulvio Maelia of Arizona in 2000, the black hole’s gravity will distort its image and magnify it.
Einstein’s Proof Would Be Radio Astronomers
Einstein’s proof of the pudding would be radio astronomers proving that the shadow, which is the graveyard of four millions suns, was indeed that small. Since 1974, when Sagittarius A* was first discovered, they have been trying to reduce its size.
Shen Zhiqiang, a member of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, narrowed Sagittarius A*’s diameter to less than 90,000,000 miles. This was done using the Very Long Baseline Array (a transcontinental network antennas).
Dr. Agol stated that “Seeing is believing” for most people at the time. However, measurements could not be taken at a finer resolution. Interstellar space’s protons and ionized electrons scattered radio waves, creating a blurring effect that obscured the source. Dr. Doeleman stated, “It’s almost like looking through frosted glasses.”
They needed to tune their radio telescope so that it could see through the haze at shorter wavelengths in order to get deeper into the shadow of the black hole. They needed a larger telescope. An antenna that is larger can achieve higher resolution and magnification.
Dr. Doeleman stated that “our black hole is active, but it’s on a slow diet with billion-degree gases around it.” He said that the result is “a puffy cloud” at the center of the Milky Way. To see the galactic center’s debris, you need to have the right frequency.
Black Holes: Dr. Doeleman was on a wandering journey to the edge of infinity.
He is the son of a scientist teacher and grew up in Oregon. He applied for graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology but was denied. However, he found an advertisement looking for Antarctic researchers.
He signed up, and spent the majority of his time at the bottom of the planet. Dr. Doeleman stated that he probably got the bug to do science in difficult circumstances while at M.I.T. He applied again to M.I.T. He returned to Antarctica, then he travelled around Asia on his return.
M.I.T. in the first group that was doing plasma physics
He joined M.I.T. in the first group that was doing plasma physics. Then he moved on to biophysics and X-ray astronomy before joining a radioastronomy group. V.L.B.I. is the radio astronomers’ preferred technique. For short, a network in which radio telescopes from different continents can be linked in a synchronized network mimicking a single antenna of very large diameter.
Dr. Doeleman initially wanted to use technology to track Earth’s movement.
Dr. Doeleman originally wanted to use the technology to track the movement of the Earth’s crust. He also wanted to be able to travel to exotic locations to install instruments. They were already in place. His eyes were then turned towards the heavens, and the mysteries surrounding quasars.
Dr. Doeleman presented a picture of Centaurus’ galaxy, which was a delicate-looking, pearly smoosh starlight with a dusty belly, during a recent talk. The galaxy is known as NGC 5128 and can be seen using binoculars in the Southern Hemisphere.
He then showed another picture of the same galaxy through what he called “radio glasses.” This view shows the galaxy being torn apart by an explosion at the core. It shoots lobes that emit energy thousands of light years across space.
Dr. Doeleman traces his interest in black holes and quasars back to the first time he saw images similar to that of them. He said, “Whatever powers those jets must be insanely powerful.”
Dr. Doeleman experienced an “aha moment” in 2008. He and his colleagues connected three radio telescopes from California, Arizona, and Hawaii to create an interferometer system. They trained the interferometer on the galactic centre using a shorter wavelength. The “dot” was a tiny blob of energy that they detected.
They could see something through the frosted glasses. But what?
He and his coworkers have since worked together to build a network large enough to detect signs of a blackhole in the radio dot.
The Event Horizon Telescope includes 20 observatories, government agencies, research institutions, universities, and over 100 scientists. They had to equip the radio telescopes with new atomic clocks that are accurate to one second per 100 million years and short-wavelength receivers to ensure they were synchronized.
Dr. Doeleman recalls wearing an oxygen tank in order to test the atomic clocks at Chile’s new ALMA array. It is located on a plateau of 16,000 feet. Daniel Marrone, a University of Arizona colleague, spent the winter at South Pole installing a new receiver. These two installations will eventually be part of the Event Horizon observations.
The group had seven radio telescopes on six mountains for the March observation run, which was their first chance to have enough telescopes to see the black hole. Over a two-week period, they would have five chances.
They hoped to see two black holes each night: one in Sagittarius A* and one in M87, a massive galaxy that anchors the huge Virgo cluster of galaxies, about 50 million light years away. It is estimated that the M87 black hole contains six billion times more mass than the sun. From here it would be only slightly smaller then the Milky Way. Jets of energy also shoot out like a blowtorch, from the accretion disc and across intergalactic spaces. Astronomers wanted to take a closer look at this phenomenon.
It could be boring or gritty depending on the way things are going.
Dr. Doeleman visited Sierra Negra in March for the fifth time in two years. It took five hours to travel by plane and bus, and five hours by car and truck to reach Serdan, a small and untouristy town.
Security officers were often alerted when he carried a special crystal that was used to test atomic clocks. He said, “It looks exactly like a bomb would look — a metal tube with wires sticking out.”
He often suffered from headaches, which was a result of his work at three miles above the sea level. The control room has finger monitors to measure blood oxygen, as well as an oxygen tank with mask for those moments when you feel woozy.
Sierra Negra is located next to Pico de Orizaba which is Mexico’s tallest mountain. Together, they create their own weather conditions, which can be problematic for astronomers.
The telescope was being rotation to prevent it from becoming snowy one night. Dr. Doeleman felt the building shake while he was in the unheated receiver area.
Light from the antenna’s focal bounces off mirrors and down an open shaft. Dr. Doeleman thought it was an earthquake and ran for the elevator only to be greeted by his colleagues in the control room and offices below. He said, “I was quite freaked.”
It wasn’t an earthquake. It was an electrical problem that caused the dish to stop half a football width wide, and 1,600 metric tons in weight. This transferred all the momentum to the structure surrounding it.
The astronomers were force to flee Serdan after a serious earthquake later on.
Late March saw Dr. Doeleman and his collaborators camping out in similar mountains in Chile and Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arizona, and Spain. They were waiting for their signal based on weather forecasts, the state of their equipment, and all the accessories of the spider silk, to start observing. All telescopes pointed in unison towards M87 and then the galactic center.
It works when it works well. Dr. Doeleman stated that this “boring” way of ganging up against the cosmos can be “boring”, in a good sense. He explained that observations should proceed automatically, while the astronomers hold their breath.
The hope is that they will be able to see the sign of one of the great natural calamities through the subtle interplay between radio waves.
Waves from different areas of the radiation cloud surround Sagittarius A* would interfere with each other, creating a complex pattern that could be read by a computer as a black hole.
Dr. Doeleman suggested that one could imagine someone dipping their finger in a pond, creating ripples. You could track the arrival of each wavecrest on the shore if there were tidal indicators installed at the shore. Concentric circles would be made by one finger.
Two fingers would be doing the dipping. The ripples could interfere with each other, sometimes amplifying and sometimes cancelling out. Some tidal gauges will show crests that combine to be large, while others will show troughs.
Dr. Doeleman stated that “by analyzing this pattern”, “we can tell where’s the action far away.” A person reading the pattern could discern whether one finger was in a particular arrangement of water dappling.
This case has antennas that are spread along the shores of infinity. They are synchronized with atomic clocks and record radio waves as they arrive.
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