While Penrose is most famous, the other two 2020 Nobel winners, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, are equally interesting. They did the big stunt telescopy to discover the blackhole at the core of our galaxy.
Conversation
One of the most astounding stunts of observational astronomy ever. I’m appreciating how hard it is just going very basic stuff. This is our friendly neighborhood Milky Way massive black hole. m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM4o9x
1
6
The black hole is in Sagittarius. You can’t see it obviously, or even around it with amateur grade instruments, but it’s fun to look in that direction and reflect on it. I took a photo of the general region a while ago (it’s currently visible in the south in the evenings)
1
6
* doing not going, 2 tweets up.
I’m still struggling to photograph Jupiter well, so not going to be getting to the blackhole anytime soon 😎
That photo is really recent... 2018.
And while we’re at it, have another black hole picture from this year. M87.
Great time to be alive if you’re into astronomy.
Replying to
We can see black holes, discs of distant stars, detect exosolar planets, gravitational lensing... We’ve seen Pluto. Cassini and Juno have made Saturn and Jupiter as familiar as the moon. Telescope sizes are exploding.
Biggest leap forward in astronomy since the 1600s. A party 🥳
1
10
