We knew of the existence of black holes—objects in the universe that absorb everything around them and let nothing escape, even light. But until Wednesday, we didn’t have photographic proof. This morning, astronomers released the first image of a black hole, which is centered in a galaxy known as Messier 87.
The image was captured using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a collection of eight telescopes from around the world, and shows light bending around the black hole. While the science community is thrilled, others are taking the opportunity to make memes out of this historic event.
You're looking at the first ever image of a black hole. It was captured by the #NSFFunded @ehtelescope project. #ehtblackhole #RealBlackHole https://t.co/6dglvqrvOs pic.twitter.com/0hclANf4tc
— National Science Foundation (@NSF) April 10, 2019
Upon seeing this image, several people thought: “hey, this looks like a glazed donut.”
used Photoshop's shake reduction filter on the Black Hole photo and was amazed by the result#EHTBlackHole pic.twitter.com/RLBPyuIx3T
— Paul Scott Canavan (@abigbat) April 10, 2019
— Deep Pockets Chopra (@Book_Stamper) April 10, 2019
I am sure the spatial resolution of the #blackhole images will get better in future. pic.twitter.com/uN9lmN9fGe
— Fakhar Khalid (@FakharKhalid) April 10, 2019
Don't Worry I Got This pic.twitter.com/upAYWjtpeJ
— Bauk (@BaukDesign) April 10, 2019
Other memes referenced films like 2001: A Space Odyssey.
computer, clean up the black hole photo, please… pic.twitter.com/eSEncgEI5d
— jesse jarnow (@bourgwick) April 10, 2019
And the jokes took off from there.
That's not a black hole pic.twitter.com/qRXTcaIaf6
— Nibel (@Nibellion) April 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/unclehxlmes/status/1116002992921219073
You, an astronomer: Look at this majestic black hole!
Me, a birder: oh. oh no pic.twitter.com/yZT97JKFZO— Rosemary Mosco (Bird And Moon) (@RosemaryMosco) April 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/claytonhickman/status/1116001291023671296
If the thought of this black hole swallowing everything up is terrifying to you, take comfort in the fact that it’s 55 million light-years away from our planet. But there’s still the unsettling fact that this beast is 6.5-billion times the mass of the sun. Yep. Thinking about donuts is making that information a little easier to parse.
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