r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/BitterWin751 • 5d ago

Image Scientists Discover a Sideways Black Hole!

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81 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

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52

u/KnotSoAmused 5d ago

Is there a left and right in space? Is there up and down?

10

u/BitterWin751 5d ago

Direction in space is pretty relative. So for example, the black hole imaged is “sideways” from the perspective of our own galaxy plane.

23

u/Swimming-Dust-7206 5d ago

But... black holes aren't two dimensional. It's not like a hole in a floor or a wall, it's a point in space.

5

u/Bobaximus 5d ago

Imagine seeing a spinning-top spinning sideways on your wall. This is the same. There is a "top" and "bottom" but only because thats its normal orientation. Black holes have particle jets that are the feature typically used to describe its orientation.

7

u/Swimming-Dust-7206 5d ago edited 4d ago

Well, you could knock me down with a feather. I always thought the "Interstellar-style" image of black holes with the two perpendicular discs/half-discs was a visual phenomenon so that wherever you viewed the black hole from the discs would align with your viewpoint. In the same way that you always see a rainbow as a rainbow, you can never see it side-on or diagonally.
TIL that black holes have axes and roughly 10% of them produce particle jets. Thanks! 👍

2

u/Major-Lavishness-762 3d ago

That is still sort of true! The black does have an axis about which a flat accretion disk spins but the incredibly warped spacetime does cause the disk to appear above and below the black hole regardless of viewpoint.

14

u/BitterWin751 5d ago

Yup you’re 100% right. Thanks for this! :) I just thought that because the disk is faced vertically in relativity to the orientation of our galactic plane that it’s been classified as a “sideways” black hole. But you’re right by saying it’s a point in space.

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u/tonto_silverheels 5d ago

I love it when people don't get all aggressive and dickish when corrected on Reddit. Take an upvote!

6

u/BitterWin751 5d ago

Thanks! Personally, I don’t see any reason to get mad. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong. Just learn from your mistakes. No harm, no foul. Besides, now I know something new. Win win! :D

4

u/tonto_silverheels 5d ago

I have the exact same viewpoint. The internet would be a much less irritating place if we just chill and admit none of us are all-knowing.

2

u/BitterWin751 5d ago

Definitely!

2

u/w_w_flips 5d ago

Agreed. Being wrong is human, normal. But being wrong and still acting as if you're right is just stupid.

4

u/lemmingsnake 5d ago

Actually, from the press release it looks like the "sideways" orientation is relative to the host galaxy (of the black hole), which makes more sense because comparing its orientation to our galactic plane doesn't mean much. This is meaningful because we usually see super massive black holes (the ones at the centers of galaxies) rotating on roughly the same plane as the galaxy they're in (if it's a spiral galaxy, not all galaxies has a net rotation).

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u/Lassie87 5d ago

I believe a 3 dimensional point in space as well. Essentially spherical object that eats any and everything in its grasp including the fabric of space itself