What do black holes look like?

[DeeAytch]

They have to have some color, yeah?

 

[phinds]

They have to have some color, yeah?

No, why would you think they have color when they are called "black"? To have color a thing has to radiate. Black holes may do Hawking Radiation but that certainly could not be called a color and they do not otherwise radiate (the ACCRETION DISK may radiate but that is outside the BH).

What DO they look like? They look like a hole in space. A black hole. See how simple some things are?

 

[Danger]

Yeah, you can't "see" one. The predominant colour, which comes from the accretion disc rather than the hole itself, is gamma/X-ray.

 

[OmCheeto]

According to this website, black is a color.

ps. Black holes look like the http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/files/2012/05/Black_Hole_Milkyway.jpeg that smacked into my window this morning. I held her for at least half an hour before she flew away. She was quite stunned by her near instantaneous deceleration.

 

[Danger]

According to this website, black is a color.

Clever, my son... fiendishly clever. You have, however, overlooked the cause of your doom. (Where is the smilie for wringing one's hands in evil glee?)
The colour or lack thereof regarding a black hole is irrelevant. Since it (the singularity) is literally a "mathematical point" of zero size, it is too small to be seen. :tongue:

 

[WannabeNewton]

A black hole singularity need not be a point, see Kerr black holes. With regards to its near thermal black body nature, see the discussion here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/61582/is-a-black-hole-a-perfect-black-body

A black hole has a very precise, mathematical definition which, unfortunately, will be too difficult to understand if you have never studied GR. This wiki article describes things rather well without using much math: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole#Properties_and_structure

 

[OmCheeto]

Clever, my son... fiendishly clever. You have, however, overlooked the cause of your doom. (Where is the smilie for wringing one's hands in evil glee?)
The colour or lack thereof regarding a black hole is irrelevant. Since it (the singularity) is literally a "mathematical point" of zero size, it is too small to be seen. :tongue:

Unfortunately, I don't believe in "mathematical points" of zero size.

That would yield an infinity.

And I don't believe in that either.

And I need a new brain. The image of my birds eye looks nothing like a black hole...

 

[Naty1]

There is an illustration of a black hole here...one without an exterior accretion disk blocking our view... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

 

[Bill_K]

See this paper by Bill Ames, for a complete analysis.

 

[stevebd1]

They have to have some color, yeah?

The top image from this website is '..a general relativistic visualization of a supercomputed magneto-hydrodynamic simulation of a disk and jet around a black hole.'-

http://jila.colorado.edu/~ajsh/insidebh/intro.html

 

[tade]

They have to have some color, yeah?

All you need to know is that the milky way goes into a black hole. Just like..you know...