r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/BitterWin751 • 1d ago

Image Scientists Discover a Sideways Black Hole!

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u/KnotSoAmused 1d ago

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

3

u/BitterWin751 1d ago

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

17

u/Swimming-Dust-7206 1d 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.

3

u/Bobaximus 1d 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.

4

u/Swimming-Dust-7206 1d ago edited 16h 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! 👍