No, but the team behind this image also plans to image Sag A* when they can. And they might have even more telescopes networked together by then, which would mean even higher resolution!
I was under the impression that you can't image it because of how dense our galaxy center is, with too much visual noise to get a clear shot. Am I mistaken?
Wouldn't the galactic noise (dust, gas, stars, rubble) also emit many different wavelengths that would interfere with a good image across the spectrum?
Some wavelengths are blocked more than others. This is why JWST is a infrared telescope instead of a visible one like Hubble. Infrared is also hard to see through our own atmosphere.
I literally watched the live stream of the conference where the image was released. Ten minutes was spent talking about the telescopes used, including the modifications made to the SPT, SPECIFICALLY for the use of M87.
So, are you calling the professor who spoke on this, AT the conference, a liar?
It's rather misleading, then, for every single article that discusses the imaging of M87's black hole to mention the SPT during the listing of which telescopes were used.
It's also rather misleading for the SPT to be included in the presentation of which telescopes were used, BY the scientists who headed up the EHT Project.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm simply saying its... well... rather misleading.
Think about it from a layman's point of view... not everybody is a scientist. Not everybody is a radio astronomer. I mean for fucks sake, we've got people alive TODAY that believe the Earth is flat. Factoring that into the equation, it really brings down the average amount of common sense and willingness to learn in an individual today. I.e. most people aren't going to realize where in the night sky M87 is.
So as the people representing the EHT Project, when they say, "heres a picture. It was taken by the EHT. The EHT is comprised of 8 telescopes, including the SPT..." but make no mention of "Oh by the way, we didn't use the SPT for THIS image, but we'll use it for future imaging" ... it really doesnt give any sort of hint at all that the SPT was not involved in this image; youd think that would be an important fact to mention... at the reveal... of the black hole image.
As a matter of fact, as the panel of scientists revealed M87's center, they made a point of talking about all the extra hardware that needed to be added to the SPT, along with the hardships and dangers of making multiple trips down there during bad weather. ...yet still never said "but we didn't use it for this image."
They mentioned a higher resolution image would be possible with more telescopes or an improved algorithm. Think it has to do with this image being the average of the combined data.
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u/tobascodagama Apr 10 '19
No, but the team behind this image also plans to image Sag A* when they can. And they might have even more telescopes networked together by then, which would mean even higher resolution!