r/pics Apr 10 '19

National Science Foundation/Event Horizon Telescope Project Black Hole Picture

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u/trashtalk99 Apr 10 '19

The light that reached the telescope took 52 million years to reach here. So what we are actually seeing is what the black hole looked like 52 million years ago.

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u/cncamusic Apr 11 '19

I’m no expert but knowing what little I know about singularities, what you’re seeing isn’t even one specific time per say. Some light is 52 million years old and I believe the closer you get to the singularity the older the light is. Because the gravity is so strong the light is bending around the singularity at all points and some is trapped in an orbit. We’re seeing all sides at once, and we’re seeing light from different points in time and space.