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Hubble Directly Images Disc Around a Black Hole

Posted by Soulskill on from the pretty-pictures dept.

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the HST site: "A team of scientists has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe a quasar accretion disc — a brightly glowing disc of matter that is slowly being sucked into its galaxy's central black hole. Their study makes use of a novel technique that uses gravitational lensing to give an immense boost to the power of the telescope. The incredible precision of the method has allowed astronomers to directly measure the disc's size and plot the temperature across different parts of the disc."

7 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. We've come a long way... by msobkow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We've come a long way since we first gazed at the stars and wondered...

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  2. Hubble Space Telescope by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Blowing your mind since 1990

    Best damn use of NASA funds, since the Moon landing.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Hubble Space Telescope by frosty_tsm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would say the mars rovers were a better bang for the buck, but hubble is a close second even with all the retrofits.

      I still find it a shame that the last shuttle mission wasn't a trip to the hubble to bring it home. just like the shuttle were designed to do.

      Other than for it to go into a museum, what would be the benefit of spending millions of dollars bringing 20-year-old technology back to earth (rather than letting it spend another 10 years in space)? Sure you can say stuff like "to see what the effects of 20 years in 0-gravity were" but we have other examples.

  3. Brilliant by Bovius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Using stars between us and the black hole as a lens to magnify the viewing target? That seems like the astronomer's equivalent of a ninja move. Brilliant.

    We're sure getting a lot of use out of Hubble. Weren't we planning on decommissioning it at some point in time? I'm glad we didn't.

  4. Albert Einstein, bad-ass by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And to think he figured this stuff out around 100 years ago...

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Albert Einstein, bad-ass by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And to think he figured this stuff out around 100 years ago...

      About 8 years ago I was using the Deep Field View for my desktop wallpaper - there's a lot of gravitational lensing going on in there, if you look carefully. Ol' Albert was a pretty sharp one, a little sad he didn't live to see these sorts of images - I'm certain he'd be so stoked that he'd pump his fist and shout, "Yesssss!"

      In the spirit of science I'll toast to his memory with a pint when I gets home tonight.

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      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Hubble: White Elephant MY ASS! by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Giving the finger to naysayers, budget cutters and luddite schmucks for 20+ years (and going). Not to mention some absolutely MIND-BLOWING interstellar photography.

    Definitely not bad for a girl with glasses.

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    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!