M87* photon ring scaled one in 1.5*10^15 by tato_713

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

This is a representation of the intensity of the light emitted from around the central black hole of the galaxy M87 (named M87*). I made this using MATLAB R2020a and the images from Arras (2020), images derived from the famous images from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (2019), the first "direct" images taken of a black hole ever. The original image is extremely blurred because of its short apparent diameter (angle of view). In order to get the scale, is about the same apparent size of watching a smartphone on the surface of the Moon, from Earth. This was posible using telescopes all around the globe as a giant interferometer. There are also distortion because of the gravitational lensing, and the material present there is constantly moving. I use the "day 0" of the mentioned paper, and I made correction for the gravitational lensing, simulating the path of light around the black hole. The shadow of the black hole was also compensated. I simulate the orbit of the material around for 4 days, just to give the model a "whirlpool" looking. I have to clarify that non feature shown in the model have a real correlation, the material there is orbiting in a thin flat disc around, and from 3 times the Schwarzschild radius beyond. The main brilliant ring is the photon ring, composed of photons orbiting at the speed of light, ionizing and spiralling inside the event horizon. I used Blender to smooth the borders of the disc. The part you see in the original image is the "south" side of disc. That's because of its spin direction and the right hand rule, the south direction of the rotational axis is pointing almost directly to us.
The file's names explained: name_1_x_10_y.stl is 1 : x * 10y. So _1_6_10_7 is 1:600000000 or one in 60 million.

M87*
M87, or Messier object 87, is one of the biggest galaxies in the local universe, and so it is its central supermassive black. The galaxy is shaped symmetrically spherical, unlike our Milky Way, that has spiral arms instead. The very core of it has a SMBH, where emerge a jet of plasma at relativistic speed, that points near to our direction, 17° to the line of sight. The SMBH event horizon is so big that all the Solar System planets with their orbits fit inside; and it is the second largest event horizon in apparent diameter, that is, the size we see it from here. Te first event horizon in that rank is Sgr A*, Milky Way's core SMBH, because of its proximity to Earth, but Sgr A* is actually way smaller than M87*. The area represented in this model is comparable in size with our Solar System Heliosphere. A black hole whole mass is concentrated in its center, the singularity, but it's common to use the volume of the event horizon as the black hole's volume. The event horizon is not a solid surface, but a boundary from where light can no longer escape. In stellar mass black holes, the event horizon, like Cygnus X-1, have a radius, called "Schwarzschild radius", of a few tens to hundreds kilometers, comparable with a medium size asteroid, resulting in a density over billions times that of water. In contrast, super masive black holes can have a density similar or even lower than water. This is because the Schwarzschild radius is proportional to the mass, and thus, the volume grows by exponent 3 over the mass.

Type: Black hole.
Distance to the Sun: 10.638x107 ly.
Density: Infinite (singularity), 0.0004 g/cm3 (event horizon)
Model scale: 1:1.5x1015 (20cm)
References

Visible shapes of black holesM87* and SgrA. Dokuchaev. 2020
The variable shadow of M87*. Arras. 2020
First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. 2019
Surf to STL function for MATLAB Other astronomical objects

Object


Scale [1:x]
K = 103 (thousand)M = 106 (million)G = 109 (billion)


Image


Inner Solar System

Mercury
20M, 60M,
120M

Venus
60M,
120M,
250M

Earth
60M,
120M,
250M

Luna
10M, 20M,
60M

Mars
20M, 60M,
120M

Phobos and Deimos
200K,
500K


Artificial

Salyut 7
40, 48, 80, 160


Near Earth Asteroids

Moshup and Squannit
8K,
20K,
40K

Ra-Shalom
20K,
40K

Castalia
8K,
20K,
40K

Bacchus
8K,
20K

Bennu
3K,
8K

Ryugu
3K, 8K,
20K

Geographos
40K,
80K

Phaethon
40K,
80K

Itokawa
3K,
8K

Eros
80K, 200K,
500K

Nereus
3K,
8K

Mithra
20K,
40K

Golevka
8K

Toutatis
40K,
80K


Main Asteroid Belt


Gaspra
200K

Annefrank
40K,
80K

Braille
20K,
40K

Vesta
2M, 4M,
10M

Šteins
40K,
80K,
200K

Iris
2M,
4M

Hebe
1M,
2M,
4M

Lutetia
500K, 1M,
2M

Julia
1M,
2M,
4M

Mathilde
500K,
1M

Juno
2M,
4M

Ceres
4M,
10M

Pallas
4M,
10M

Kleopatra
2M,
4M

Ida
500K,
1M

Psyche
2M,
4M

Interamnia
2M,
4M

Hygiea
2M,
4M,
10M

Antiope
1M,
2M


Jovian System

Jupiter
500M, 1G

Amalthea
2M,
4M

Thebe
1M,
2M

Io
20M,
60M

Europa
20M,
60M

Ganymede
60M,
120M

Callisto
60M,
120M


Saturn System

Saturn
500M,
1G

Pan, Daphnis and Atlas
80K,
200K,
500K,
1M

Prometheus and Pandora
1M,
2M

Janus and Epimetheus
2M,
4M

Mimas
2M,
4M,
10M

Methone, Anthe and Pallene
40K,
80K

Enceladus
4M,
10M

Tethys
4M, 10M, 20M

Telesto and Calypso
200K,
500K

Dione
4M, 10M, 20M

Helene
500K,
1M

Rhea
10M,
20M

Titan
60M,
120M

Hyperion
2M,
4M

Iapetus
10M,
20M

Phoebe
1M, 2M,
4M


Uranian System

Uranus
250M,
500M,
1G

Puck
1M,
2M,
4M

Miranda
4M,
10M

Ariel
10M, 20M

Umbriel
10M, 20M

Titania
10M,
20M

Oberon
10M,
20M


Neptunian System

Neptune
250M,
500M,
1G

Larissa
2M,
4M

Proteus
2M,
4M,
10M

Triton
20M


Comets


Tempel 1
40K,
80K,
200K

Wild 2
40K,
80K

Churyumov-Gerasimenko
20K, 40K,
80K

Hartley 2
20K,
40K,
80K

Borrelly
40K,
80K,
200K

Halley
80K,
200K


Centaurs and TNOs

Hidalgo
500K, 1M

Chariklo
2M,
4M

Pluto and Charon
10M,
20M

Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra
500K,
1M

Haumea, Namaka and Hiʻiaka
10M,
20M

Arrokoth
200K,
500K,
1M

Largest TNOs and their moons
10M,
20M


Extrasolar

Exoplanets
120M,
250M,
500M

Nearest white dwarfs
120M,
250M

HD 189733 b
1G

Pulsars
200K,
500K

Cygnus X-1 accretion disk
10M,
20M

M87* photon ring
1.5*1014


Sky maps

Heliosphere
7.5*1013, 1.5*1014

Constellations
-

CMBR
2*1028


Ancient

Earth (540 Mya to 20 Mya)
60M,
120M,
250M

Luna (4 Gya)
20M,
60M


Speculative

Planet Nine
250M,
500M


Cube planet
60M,
120M,
250M


Science Fiction

Ghroth
4M,
10M

Arda
60M,
120M

B612
10, 20, 32, 40

Mesklin
500M,
1G

Arrakis
60M,
120M

Borg cube
8K, 20K,
40K

Pern
60M,
120M

Europa Monolith
200K,
500K

Leonora Christine
500, 600, 1K, 3K

Rama
80K, 200K, 500K

Death Star
500K, 1M, 2M

Starkiller Base
2M, 4M,
10M

Nirn, Secunda and Masser
20M,
60M,
120M

Independence Day mothership
2M,
4M,
10M

Arrival heptapod spaceship
1K,
3K,
8K

Gaijin flowership
3K

Red Moon
60M,
120M

Halo Array
4M,
10M, 20M, 60M

Gem Homeworld

120M, 250M, 500M

The Skeld
40, 80, 160, 350, 500


Misc

Mars (1962 reconstruction)
60M,
120M

Flat Earth
250M

Expanding Earth
60M, 120M

Spaceship of Ezekiel
80, 160