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Curated by: ehtelescope (38 videos)
Light faces an arduous journey to escape from a black hole and arrive at our telescopes on Earth. The light must make it past the black hole itself, the hot gas surrounding the black hole, the interstellar medium, and the earth’s atmosphere. Not all light survives. In this short documentary, we follow a group of five light waves born near the black hole in the heart of our galaxy on their journey to Earth. Some of the light waves have their journey interrupted and cannot be used to create a black hole image. These waves leave the group and their area of the spectrum is marked in red. When light waves pass an obstacle unscathed, they remain in the group and their area of the spectrum is marked in green. The spectrum is marked with orange and the light waves are blurred to show when light waves are partially hindered by obstacles. In the end, only light waves that are about 1 millimeter long survive the journey and can be used. Scientists at the Event Horizon Telescope say 1 millimeters is the “Goldilocks” wavelength. Because they’re not too short and not too long, 1 millimeter light waves are perfect for making an image of a black hole. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. To learn more, you can check out our website at https://eventhorizontelescope.org/. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ehtelescope Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehtelescope/ Or follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ehtelescope/ If you enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and subscribe! Credits: Producer: the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Director: Nicholas Conroy Writers: Nicholas Conroy and Sheperd Doeleman Narrator: Christopher Gaal Animation: Crazybridge Studios Animation Director: Christopher Gaal 3D Animator: Scott Bell Black Hole Simulation: Hotaka Shiokawa IRAM 30m Telescope Image: DiVertiCimes Music: Enigmatic from Bensound.com