A 'Movie' of the Universe? Black Holes Might Just Contain It

Amaze Lab

There are infinite rings of light around a black hole that capture the history of the universe, and scientists are figuring out how to get a better look.

Transcript

00:00 [music]

00:03 Black holes are notoriously hard to photograph.

00:06 According to the ESO, our first ever image of a black hole

00:09 came from eight different telescopes across the world

00:11 that joined forces to get one simple picture.

00:14 But according to Science Alert, more images can answer some big questions.

00:18 Scientists are particularly interested in rings of light

00:20 just outside a black hole's event horizon.

00:23 These rings are made of photons stuck in the orbit of a black hole

00:26 that aren't quite close enough to get sucked in.

00:28 Research published in the journal Science Advances

00:30 says that this visible ring of light

00:32 actually contains infinite light rings nested inside it.

00:35 This is possible because black holes are so massive

00:38 that gravity works in wild ways around them.

00:40 Theoretically, it would make orbiting photons

00:42 capture a snapshot of the entire universe.

00:45 The closer you look, the older these snapshots get.

00:48 Each sub-ring of light shows the universe at an earlier date,

00:51 meaning that if you saw them in order,

00:52 it would tell the life story of the universe.

00:54 And more practically, the sub-rings show the mass and speed of a black hole.

00:57 Our best bet for seeing these light rings

01:00 is with arrays of telescopes called interferometers.

01:03 The goal is to have long distances between telescopes,

01:06 so it would help to build one on the Moon or beyond.

01:09 (upbeat music)

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