Black hole orientation

[Josh Wilson]

I was watching a show about black holes or light travel the other day and in all the animations black holes were always face-on. I'm just curious as to why black holes are always found exactly face-on. Why never from the side or back? Thanks in advance!

Josh

[acey]

Black holes are spherical so any way you look at them is "face-on".

[Capricorn]

The other aspect is that it is an animation, it is an animators idea of giving the person(s) watching something that keeps them interested. They will ask a cosmologist for guidance (maybe) but what they produce is more for entertainment then anything.

[Tiki]

Black holes are spherical so any way you look at them is "face-on".

Unless they are rotating.

[SnakeyJ]

Of course you cannot see the black hole, just the accretion disk in as far as the event horizon. I think the relatavistic view is that the orbit of objects in the disk is actually objects traveling along straight paths around the gravity well of warped space time - love to read but do not claim a true understanding, I wonder if you get clockwise and anticlockwise spinning accretion disks!

[symesie04]

I was watching a show about black holes or light travel the other day and in all the animations black holes were always face-on. I'm just curious as to why black holes are always found exactly face-on. Why never from the side or back? Thanks in advance!

Josh

Not entirely sure it can be argued that BH have fornts, backs or sides, its surely only our perception.

Black holes are spherical so any way you look at them is "face-on".

Logic would assume that they are spherical and that would certainly what our cyrrent understanding of gravitational physics would suggest. However as we cant currently observe or measure any physical characteristics of a BH. Due to the fact that many things about BH seemingly fall outside the current laws of physics or at least our understanding of it think it would be bold to assume sperical. After all can a singularity be said to possess any shape?

Of course you cannot see the black hole, just the accretion disk in as far as the event horizon. I think the relatavistic view is that the orbit of objects in the disk is actually objects traveling along straight paths around the gravity well of warped space time - love to read but do not claim a true understanding, I wonder if you get clockwise and anticlockwise spinning accretion disks!

Interesting thought, I really dont know what anyhting caught within the accretion disk would be able to deduce from their orbit, I would kind of imagine all they would be able to see is a blinding glare of light. Regarding the anti or clockwise spin would that not be down to which side of the warped space time ytou view from? Would that not just be a perspective thing? Are we privy to viewing space time from different angles?

[SnakeyJ]

Interesting thought, I really dont know what anyhting caught within the accretion disk would be able to deduce from their orbit, I would kind of imagine all they would be able to see is a blinding glare of light. Regarding the anti or clockwise spin would that not be down to which side of the warped space time ytou view from? Would that not just be a perspective thing? Are we privy to viewing space time from different angles?

Thanks Symsie - re changing perspective, that sounds perfectly obvious and simple and I should really have thought that bit through... Re how the accretion disks form and operate and what the well protected observer might see, I think there are several thesis (or whatever the plural is) waiting to be written.

Vectis Astronomy had Dr Tom Maccarone from Southampton University for a presentation 'The search for intermediate black holes' - kicking myself for not making the meeting

[symesie04]

Thats a shame, yes it would of been really good to attend something like. Its something I always would love to do is to just sit and pose a list of questions to someone in the know.

[Tiki]

There are quite a few binary systems that are thought to contain black-holes. The most famous of these is an x-ray source named Cygnus X-1. The likely scenario involves one of the stars evolving to a black-hole and drawing matter from its neighbour. This matter composes the greater part what is known as the accretion disc. Tidal forces and friction heat the disc up to something like 10^7 Kelvin so that it emits a whole load of x-rays. Such x-ray sources are highly luminous as they are thought to have a small surface area.

I also strongly doubt that nature produces stellar sized black-holes that don't rotate.