First Detection of Light from Behind a Black Hole

Thank you to Blinkist for supporting PBS. For more information and trial go to http://www.blinkist.com/PBSSpacetime How do you see the unseeable - how do you explore the inescapable? Our cleverest astronomers have figured out ways to catch light that skims the very edge of black holes. Let’s find out what they learned. A few weeks ago a story made the rounds of pop-sci media proclaiming that for the first time light had been detected from behind a black hole. The reports were about a paper that claimed to have seen X-rays that came not from inside but from the back end black hole. This is obviously cool stuff - I mean, really anything new with black holes captures the public attention. But this result is cool in ways most people aren’t aware. And it brought us closer to a goal that I’ve been personally striving towards for years - trying to understand what happens in the vicinity of the largest black holes in the universe. I thought it would be worth doing a space time journal club on the Nature paper by Wilkins, Gallo, Costantini, Brandt & Blandford so I get to talk about my favorite subject in the universe. Nature Paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03667-0 Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime #space #blackholes #astrophysics Hosted by Matt O Dowd Written by Matt O Dowd Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria GFX Visualizations: Ajay Manuel Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Special Thanks to our Patreon Supporters Big Bang Supporters Ari Paul Kyle Bulloch Charlie Mrs. Tiffany Poindexter Leo Koguan Sandy Wu Matthew Miller Scott Gray Ahmad Jodeh Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Fabrice Eap Quasar Supporters Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Christina Oegren Mark Heising Hank S Hypernova Supporters William Bryan Kaci Parker Drollere Joe Moreira Marc Armstrong Elizabeth Smith Scott Gorlick Nick Berard Paul Stehr-Green MuON Marketing Russell Pope Ben Delo Nicholas Newlin DrJYou Антон Кочков John R. Slavik Mathew Danton Spivey Donal Botkin John Pollock Edmund Fokschaner Joseph Salomone Matthew O Connor Chuck Zegar Jordan Young m0nk John Hofmann Daniel Muzquiz Timothy McCulloch Gamma Ray Burst Supporters Andre Stechert Ross Bohner Farhan Wali Paul Wood Kent Durham jim bartosh Nubble Chris Navrides Scott R Calkins Carl Scaggs G Mack The Mad Mechanic Ellis Hall John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Ben Campbell Lawrence Tholl, DVM Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Alex Edwards Ádám Kettinger MD3 Endre Pech Daniel Jennings Cameron Sampson Pratik Mukherjee Geoffrey Clarion Nate Adrian Posor Darren Duncan Russ Creech Jeremy Reed Eric Webster Steven Sartore David Johnston J. King Michael Barton Christopher Barron James Ramsey Justin Jermyn Mr T Andrew Mann Jeremiah Johnson Peter Mertz Isaac Suttell Devon Rosenthal Oliver Flanagan Bleys Goodson Robert Walter Bruce B Ismael Montecel Simon Oliphant Mirik Gogri Mark Daniel Cohen Brandon Lattin Nickolas Andrew Freeman Protius Protius Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Robert Ilardi Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Martin Skans Michael Conroy Graydon Goss Frederic Simon Tonyface John Robinson A G Kevin Lee Adrian Hatch Yurii Konovaliuk John Funai Cass Costello Tristan Deloche Bradley Jenkins Kyle Hofer Daniel Stříbrný Luaan AlecZero Vlad Shipulin Cody Malte Ubl King Zeckendorff Nick Virtue Scott Gossett Dan Warren Patrick Sutton John Griffith Daniel Lyons Julien Dubois DFaulk GrowingViolet Kevin Warne Andreas Nautsch Brandon labonte