After a black hole was captured for the first time, the internet went crazy with memes.
A collection of 200 scientists worked on releasing an image of a black hole - once thought to be unphotographable - following a decade of tedious work. The image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, named for the point at which nothing can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole.
The Event Horizon isn’t one telescope; it’s eight radio telescopes around the globe. By combining their power, scientists created a super telescope that, starting in 2017, could focus in on a blackhole in the M87 galaxy. This black hole has a mass 6.5-billion times that of the Sun and is larger than the orbit Neptune makes around our star. Scientists needed supercomputers to analyze5,000 trillion bytes of datathat the telescope collected on this giant black hole.
From there, an imaging algorithm developed by MIT graduateKatie Boumanpieced together a final, single photograph that - once and for all - confirmed Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (the first to posit the existence of black holes). “We have seen what we thought was unseeable, we have seen and taken a picture of a black hole," said Sheperd Doeleman, the director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, in a statement.
The image, of course, is now a viral sensation. Within minutes of hitting the web,memes began to surface– from comparisons to the legendary Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, to the inevitable Trump association. Here are some of the best black hole memes we’ve spotted so far.
Best black hole memes
The image, of course, is now a viral sensation. Within minutes of hitting the web, memes began to surface from all over. Providing plenty of giggles.
Feeling cute
“Feeling cute might delete all information that passes through my event horizon later”
“feeling cute might delete all information that passes through my event horizon later”
A real eye-opener
XKCD comic creator shows us how awesome the Black Hole is with a quick comparison to our own solar system.
XKCD comic creator took a different stance byshowing ushow awesome the Black Hole is with a quick comparison to our own solar system.
Red ring of death
“The photo of the black hole is blurry, but if you zoom and enhance then you can see its full destructive power”
Ah, the classics. HereMark Dohertyshows us the full power of the Black Hole, aka the Red Ring of Death:
That’s no Black Hole
Nibel says “That’s not a black hole”
Nibel says"That’s not a black hole"
Sauron again
Bobby Carlton Tweeted “So far this has been my favorite #blackhole meme.”
Bobby Carlton Tweeted"So far this has been my favorite #blackhole meme."
Sound garden
Like a comparison with famous album covers, this one shows how the Black Hole image stands up against Soundgarden’s Superunknown album artwork from 1994.
“Black Hole / Black Hole Sun”
Merrie Melodies
This one really takes us back to the good ol' days.
Thefollow-up Tweetto this by Keith L M also made us laugh “Surely it should be the end of programme version that says, ‘Thats all folks!’…”
Black hole eyes
Earl of Frunkpuppy, a Neuropsychologist from Ohio Tweeted “#frunkpuppy Norman doesn’t look too bad with black hole eyes #BlackHoles #space”
