Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy

Re:Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the h... by VikingCoder on Thursday May 12, 2022 @12:03PM (#31356063)

Can someone do the math for me?

Let's say I'm 6 feet tall... what object would I have to hold out at arm's length, to have the same angular width as the entirety of this image?

A bacteria? A virus?

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Re:Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the h... by Dave_Rosenthal on Thursday May 12, 2022 @12:30PM (#31356410)

The answer is ~200 picometers.

Wolfram lists some helpful comparisons:

1/2 the distance between base pairs in DNA

3x the atomic diameter of helium (the smallest atom)

Suffice to say you'd have a hard time seeing it as it would be 3,000x smaller than the wavelength of visible light.

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Re:Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the h... by devoutsalsa on Thursday May 12, 2022 @05:02PM (#31360086)

Hydrogen isn’t smaller than helium? Or hydrogen isn’t an atom?

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Re:Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the h... by edgyquant on Friday May 13, 2022 @12:46PM (#31369862)

Helium has the smallest atomic radius

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Re:Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the h... by VikingCoder on Thursday May 12, 2022 @01:19PM (#31357031)

Thank you! That's freaking bonkers.

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