Dr Carlos Bacigalupo interviewed on SBS Radio for his view on the picture of the Black Hole

maxon Australia Head of Research and Development and Astrophysicist, Dr Carlos Bacigalupo, explains the significance of the photo of the black hole.

On April 11, Dr Bacigalupo was interviewed by Australian SBS Radio. Below he explains the phenomenon of the black hole and what the picture means for science going forward. Full transcript is below.

TRANSCRIPT

Reporter (intro):

In "The 13th Hour" we speak about astronomy and astrophysics because today the 200 scientists of the "Event Horizon Telescope" team have released the first image of a black hole from the galaxy Messier 87 that is 55 million light years away. We spoke with astrophysicist Dr Carlos Bacigalupo from maxon Australia.

Reporter: Dr. Bacigalupo, a group of scientists have announced and presented the first image of a black hole. But before we speak about this event, can you tell us what is a black hole? Good Afternoon.

Dr. Bacigalupo: Good Afternoon. Black holes are very interesting stellar objects that have sparked interest amongst researchers and the general public since they were first discovered. It arises from Einstein's general relativity, more than 100 years ago. A black hole is a star that collapsed by its own gravity. At the moment of collapsing, it is left with enough mass to overcome its capacity to support its own structure leading to a point called a singularity. This creates a region in space-time where the density is so high, that anything that gets too close gets absorbed by it, including light. The name black hole comes from its capacity to absorb the surrounding light, effectively creating a black hole in space from our point of view.

Reporter: It is said that an image was taken from a black hole, but obviously we are not talking about a regular picture because it is 55 million light years away. How do we take a picture of a black hole?

Dr. Bacigalupo: The black hole in itself doesn't emit any light, so we can't see it. What we do get to see is that the space around it is warped, similar to what we see through a crystal sphere. We also see that the matter that un-fortunately got too close is falling inwards. The matter approaches the black hole primarily in a disc called accretion disk. There is so much friction during this process that things heat up and emit light. When we say that we see a black hole, we mean that we see the stuff around it that behaves in a way that only a black hole can induce.

Reporter: What is the relevance of this scientific event?

Dr. Bacigalupo: Initially black holes were a peculiar solution to Einstein's field equations. Later, astronomical observations hinted on objects that could fit the description. We then realised that black holes are not only real, but also they come in many shapes and forms, from roughly the mass of the Sun, to many billions times that. We also learned that every respectable galaxy has a massive one in the center. All this was only indirect confirmation of their existence. This image shows us for the first time, the closest we can observe, which is the event horizon and the heated up matter around it. In the released image, the dark patch in the middle is the area where light can't escape. This is visual confirmation of a 100 year old theory. Very exciting.

Reporter: And speaking about popular beliefs and pseudo-science, black holes have always had a bad reputation. It is said that a black hole can swallow the whole galaxy. What is real about this type of conjecture?

Dr. Bacigalupo: Well, they are quite real. A black hole is not something that you want to have too close. Because of its destructive force, it will swallow anything around it, in turn making it more powerful leading to a snowball effect where the more you feed it, the more it wants. That is in fact real. There is also plenty of fantasy around them. For example it is proposed that they are portals into other dimensions, due to the unique characteristics of the space-time around them. These are pseudo-scientific speculations that are not necessarily too far from reality, but that doesn't make them real. The difficulty here is that the physics of a black hole is so unique that our physics can't fully explain it. In particular, the central point called the singularity, is a mathematical concept with a limited translation to our understanding of the physical world. This is a dark area, excuse my pun, in our understanding and can lead to a lot of imaginative solutions, that could be fun and interesting but it's important to separate them from scientific facts.

Reporter: And finally Carlos, after this scientific achievement, what are the next challenges that we will face in astronomy and astrophysics?

Dr. Bacigalupo: The consortium of telescopes that produced the image, is using around 13 different radio telescopes spread around the Earth to combine them into a single Earth size telescope. This in itself is a fantastic organisational achievement and a great milestone for humankind. They attempted to image the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, this proved harder than expected due to the amount of dust and debris in the line of sight. That was the reason why they chose M87 as their first target. Despite being further, it's easier to see. Their next goal is to aim their telescopes at the centre of our galaxy to get the equivalent image but from our own black hole.

Reporter: Dr. Carlos Bacigalupo, astrophysicist and head of Research and Development of maxon Australia thank you for this interview with SBS radio.

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