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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
My mate was underwhelmed, asking if I'd seen it. I hadn't and asked him to show me. He asked me what I expected to see. To his surprise, I described what the image showed... a circular halo with a bright side. He asked why the bright side? I told him Doppler. We're looking at very fucking hot matter, probably plasma, orbiting at a significant fraction of light speed, slowly being consumed by the black hole. Half of what we see is moving away from us, half towards us. The bright side is moving towards us. I also told him the hole we see is 2.6 times the radial size of the actual event horizon, and told him to dig more. Now he isn't underwhelmed, he finds it interesting.
I saw a youtube guy predict what it would look like, based on what GR would predict. So I knew what to expect.
Mind still blown.
FWIW, you know physics better than any other non-physicist I've met. I wonder if you could actually parlay that interest into a science communication career... or even a paying hobby.
There are certainly people with worse explanations on YouTube talking about physics.
I kinda doubt you're interested in this, if I'm on my game, that is. But if you are... go for it. Drop me a link so I can laugh at you swearing at black holes for being so fucking awesome.
I don't think that's doppler. Doppler would change the color of the light, not the intensity. I think it's frame dragging. The black hole's spacetime is distorted around it. The warped spacetime changes how straight lines look on either side of the rotating BH. Lines on one side of the BH can shoot past it, with some bending. Lines on the other side are bent so much that they go to the BH.
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