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Have you wondered why the ‘newer’ images of black holes are depicted this way including in the movie Interstellar?
It has to do with gravitational lensing.
We know from 1919’s solar eclipse where Eddington validated 1/
: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman
It has to do with gravitational lensing.
We know from 1919’s solar eclipse where Eddington validated 1/
: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman
Einstein’s prediction of light bending around mass due to spacetime curvature. The more massive an object, the more spacetime is curved hence bends light more. With an object like a black hole at a certain distance if you shine a flashlight, the light will curve all the way 2/
around the black hole, shine the back of your head, and the photons leaving your head travels back around enabling you to see the back of your head in front of you.
The accretion disc orbits the black hole in a flat ring like the rings on
. However, when you look OVER 3/
The accretion disc orbits the black hole in a flat ring like the rings on
. However, when you look OVER 3/
the black hole you are seeing the top of the accretion disc on the far side of the black hole thru gravitational lensing in front of you, and when you look BELOW you are seeing the bottom of the accretion disc on the far side of the black hole. 4/
This is why the images of black holes appear to have horizontal and vertical accretion discs.
