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Virtual Telescope Zooms In On Milky Way Black Hole

FiReaNGeL writes "An international team has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The astronomers used radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across that is capable of seeing details more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope. The target of the observations was the source known as Sagittarius A* ("A-star"), long thought to mark the position of a black hole whose mass is 4 million times greater than the sun. Though Sagittarius A* was discovered 30 years ago, the new observations for the first time have an angular resolution, or ability to observe small details, that is matched to the size of the event horizon."

27 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. obligatory by savuporo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thats your basic Beowulf cluster of telescopes.

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    1. Re:obligatory by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Funny

      In a black hole, no one can see you scream.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  2. On closer inspection by nickswitzer · · Score: 5, Funny

    An international team has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

    *Zoom Out*... "Is that?.. It.. it.. it's Oprah eating a klondike bar. Sorry folks, our mistake."

  3. Obligatory by bemo56 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Black Holes suck!

    - I'll be here the whole week. Tip your waitress. Try the veal.

  4. Pics? by Feanturi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pics or it didn't happen

    1. Re:Pics? by Psychotria · · Score: 4, Funny

      Pics or it didn't happen

      I believe that the pictures look pretty similar to the screenshots of Doom 4.

    2. Re:Pics? by dvh.tosomja · · Score: 1, Funny

      PICS OR GTFO

    3. Re:Pics? by suds · · Score: 5, Funny

      Here is one high resolution picture of the blackhole

      .

  5. Re:Interferometry by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aperture Synthesis

    We synthesize what we must because we can.

  6. First pics released! by TechnoBunny · · Score: 5, Funny
  7. so... by Brain+Damaged+Bogan · · Score: 2, Funny

    the moon and various satellites spin around the earth
    the earth and various other planetary objects spins around our sun
    our sun spins around a giant black hole
    what does the giant black hole spin around?

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    -- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
    1. Re:so... by Psychotria · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, duh

    2. Re:so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      > what does the giant black hole spin around?

      Windows Vista

    3. Re:so... by bobdotorg · · Score: 5, Funny

      the moon and various satellites spin around the earth
      the earth and various other planetary objects spins around our sun
      our sun spins around a giant black hole
      what does the giant black hole spin around?

      An exceptionally massive turtle.

      --
      __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
    4. Re:so... by lisaparratt · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean all the galaxies sink to the bottom, and God swears at Delia Smith's fruit cake recipe?

  8. Paths by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sagittarius A* ?
    Dijkstra's Scorpio is better :)

    Ok ok, I'm not a space nerd!

  9. Re:Interferometry by SJ2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can we stop saying "virtual telescopes" and start using the proper grown up terms? Interferometry and Aperture Synthesis aren't hard to understand. It's a pet peeve of mine, and slashdotters should be of a level of intelligence that they can understand this stuff.

    So in layman's terms, speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out?

  10. Muse by invisiblerhino · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a physicist, I sometimes wish I could hear the words 'supermassive black hole' in a professional context without immediately thinking of that catchy song from their new album.

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    xterm -n 8
  11. Re:Interferometry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Aperture synthesis

    i.e., making a massive hole to let light in to see a super-massive hole which won't let light out.

    No wonder you're having trouble developing the piccies!

  12. Re:Pics! by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    with the gravitational pull it would look like:

    ><

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    rewriting history since 2109
  13. Re:Interferometry by garfi5h · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... and they play with VLA, and SKA (square kilometer array).

    Cool! Can they play reggae or jazz to? ;-)

  14. Re:STOP SHOUTING! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apologies, it was a straight copy and paste of the title. Luckily, I posted them in Chrome, so you may sue Google if you have suffered any permanent injuries as they hold all the rights :).

  15. Re:Note by aliquis · · Score: 2, Funny

    How very insightful of you, now all you need to do is to break one milky way open and look for any bubbles in it, if you find one tilt the bar so the bubbles interior don't get any light and take a photograph, send your milky way black hole to nasa.

    I can do science me!

  16. The Biggest....? by Frightened_Turtle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmm..... Near the "A-Star"?

    Does this mean that in the center of our galaxy is the biggest "A-Hole" in our galaxy?

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    Whew! This water sure is cold!
  17. Re:Interferometry by Das+Modell · · Score: 2, Funny

    Speedy light goes in, speedy light doesn't come out.

  18. Re:freeresearcher.com by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    But if we don't see these things in the visible light spectrum, how will we ever recognize them during sightseeing trips? If someone tells us to "take a left at the purple nebula", but the nebula is actually brown in visible light, then we're going to get really, really lost.

  19. Sagittarius A by da007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sagittarius A* - Previous location of the Large Hadron Collider