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Most likely because the blackhole is spinning and therefore creates a disc of accretion matter around it rather than a sphere. And we're just lucky enough to be oriented in a direction to see it from 'above'
How Hubble images are processed may be learned from a pdf downloadable from the HubbleSite.
HubbleSite - Hubble Image Processors
HubbleSite - Hubble Image Processors
There is also the lensing that will show everything on the other side bent as a ring.
dave
Once the general public "understands" that it's a "computer image generated from radio waves" (and not a "photographic" image) it'll be quite a few news cycles down the road.
Indeed, a popular and scientifically literate Internet artist has generated this image to show the black hole's size relative to objects around the Earth:
xkcd: M87 Black Hole Size Comparison
En smultring, eeeen smultring, det er et hull med mat omkriiiing!
Og er det ingen mat omkring, da er det ingen smult-e-riiiiing.
En smultring, en smultring, det er et hull med mat omkring!
Smult = Lard
Ring = Ring *duh*
Loosely translated to make it rhyme:
A donut, a donut, it's a hole with food about!
And if there is no food about, then it's not a donut.
A donut, a donut, it's a hole with food about!
Og er det ingen mat omkring, da er det ingen smult-e-riiiiing.
En smultring, en smultring, det er et hull med mat omkring!
Smult = Lard
Ring = Ring *duh*
Loosely translated to make it rhyme:
A donut, a donut, it's a hole with food about!
And if there is no food about, then it's not a donut.
A donut, a donut, it's a hole with food about!
That’s an absolute monster. Hard to visualize the size of the thing. The jet of gas and high energy particles shooting out the middle (at right angles to the accretion disc) is about 4000 light years long IIRC.
I don’t see the problem radio telescopes to image objects like this - there’s a big array in South Africa (‘meerKAT) that’s imaged the centre of our galaxy and has captured the giant filaments (2-3 LY in diameter and hundreds of LY long) that surround a lot of black holes. All they are doing here is looking at a part of the EM spectrum that you can’t see with your eyes, which is a very, very small part of it.
Here the image An astounding image of the massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, courtesy of Africa's new super telescope
I don’t see the problem radio telescopes to image objects like this - there’s a big array in South Africa (‘meerKAT) that’s imaged the centre of our galaxy and has captured the giant filaments (2-3 LY in diameter and hundreds of LY long) that surround a lot of black holes. All they are doing here is looking at a part of the EM spectrum that you can’t see with your eyes, which is a very, very small part of it.
Here the image An astounding image of the massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, courtesy of Africa's new super telescope
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Apparently the data required "sneaker net" a mass of hard drives that had to be shipped to a central location.
There should be plenty of free info on the web, some might shed light on the methodology that can be understood by the layman.
I know a donut when I see one, Polish or not.
I like Pączki. One of coworkers at my previous company is from Poland and he brought some for holiday treat. Good stuff!
It's similar to Krispy Kreme jelly filled doughnut but with chewy dough.
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