Wonder of Science
The astonishing scale of supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from 100,000 to over 60 billion times our Sun's. This visualization compares the sizes of black hole shadows to solar system objects, featuring giants like Sagittarius A* in the Milky Way and the colossal TON 618.
Animation credit: NASA Goddard
Source and further details: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14335
SuperMeown
@WotNow_4Jane@mastodon.social
@wonderofscience This is truly awesome !
Andoni Irigoien Moreno
@wonderofscience Astounding images! However, I wonder whether talking about big and small on those scales makes sense at all.
johnpiers
Absolutely mind blowing!
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
@wonderofscience That strange mixture of terror and awe that a SMBH creates.
PantyhoseWimp
@wonderofscience still uncertain what I’m seeing. Is each blue graphic represent the size of the black hole and its shadow to scale with everything else? So if I want to compare things then I have to mentally slide the blue graphic to the center? If so, why not just put all the blue graphics in the center? Or does the distance of the blue graphic’s center from the center of the image represent the size of the black hole? So, for example, Sag A* is as big as asteroid belt orbit?
PantyhoseWimp
@wonderofscience what I mean in how big is the black hole in this screenshot? The yellow circle or the orange circle?
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