Short interview excerpt (YouTube clip) where Leonard Susskind reacts to the Event Horizon Telescope’s first black hole image, praising it as a major scientific triumph that confirms predictions of general relativity and noting the broader astrophysical questions about black hole populations. He connects this achievement to the historical development of general relativity and to LIGO’s technological accomplishments.
Questions this video answers
About 10^-21 (measuring ability on the order of 10 to the minus 21).
So what do you think of the recent first image of a black hole visualized from the Event Horizon Telescope?
It's an incredible triumph of science in itself. The fact that there are black holes which collide is not a surprise. And they seem to work exactly the way they're supposed to work. Will we learn a great deal from it? I don't know. We might. But the kind of things we'll learn won't really be about black holes. Why there are black holes in nature of that particular mass scale and why they're so common may tell us something about the structure, evolution of structure in the universe, but I don't think it's going to tell us anything new about black holes. But it's a triumph in the sense that you go back 100 years and it was a continuous development. General relativity, the discovery of black holes, ligo the incredible technology that went into ligo. It is something that I never would have believed was going to happen 30, 40 years ago. And I think it's a magnificent structure, magnificent thing, this evolution of general relativity. Ligo high precision ability to measure things on a scale of 10 to the minus 21. So.
So you're just astonishing though.
We just in awe.
This path took us to this right picture. Is it different? You know, you've thought a lot about black holes. Is it. How did you visualize them in. In your mind? And is the picture different than you realized it?
No, it simply confirmed, you know, it's a magnificent triumph to have confirmed. Confirmed a direct observation.
Yeah.
That Einstein's theory of gravity at the level of black hole collisions actually works is awesome. It is really awesome. You know, I know some of the people who are involved in that. They're just ordinary people.
Yeah.
And the idea that they could carry this out, I just. I'm shocked.
Yeah. Just these little Homo sapiens.
Yeah. Just these little monkeys got together and took a picture of slightly advanced limbers. I think sa.
