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How to Understand What Black Holes Look Like

Veritasium · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Cosmology & astrophysicsFundamental physics

What it is

Veritasium explains what a black hole should look like, using J.P. Luminet's 1979 work and a cardboard 3D model to show how light bends around it. It was made just as the first black hole image was released.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended for correctly predicting the features of the real black hole image and clearly explaining the lensing physics behind it.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2021

What HN commenters said

  1. “is one of my favorite videos in a long time”

    Explains how the black hole image was predicted before release.

    turshija, 2019-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole [video]”

  2. “Good video that correctly predicted the image and describes why it looks the way it does”

    Predicts the black hole image and explains why it looks that way.

    JumpCrisscross, 2019-04 · Recommendation · in “Unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole [video]”

  3. “This video predicts pretty well all of the features we expected to find”

    Predicts the features later seen in the actual black hole image.

    delecti, 2019-04 · Recommendation · in “Unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole [video]”

  4. “This video explains in much more detail”

    Detailed explanation of why light bends around a black hole.

    tempestn, 2019-04 · Recommendation · in “Unveiling the first-ever image of a black hole [video]”

  5. “Derek explains the physics in a reasonably understandable manner”

    Understandable explanation of the physics behind the black hole image.

    kaslai, 2019-07 · Recommendation · in “A Ring of Controversy Around a Black Hole Photo”

  6. “There's a clearer explanation of why the disk looks that way and how the gravitational warp makes those light paths”

    Clear explanation of why the accretion disk looks warped.

    sudhirj, 2019-09 · Recommendation · in “Simulation of what a massive black hole would look like”

  7. “Veritasium made an excellent youtube video explaining how this effect works (before the image was released!)”

    Explains the lensing effect, made before the image was released.

    sova, 2019-09 · Recommendation · in “Simulation of what a massive black hole would look like”

  8. “There is a nice 3d cardboard simulation and clear explanation in a video by Veritasium”

    Cardboard 3D simulation and clear explanation of black hole appearance.

    gus_massa, 2021-08 · Recommendation · in “First image of a black hole: a CNRS researcher had simulated it as early as 1979”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: black holes, gravitational lensing, accretion disk, event horizon telescope, m87

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