ill add to my rant... (I've handled similar data first hand and teach this stuff)
what makes a photograph a "real" photograph? how does a camera work? imagine you're photographing a dog... a film camera receives light, visible light received by the camera bounces off a couple mirrors and chemically reacts with the film to produce the image. that same reaction would not happen with infrared or ultraviolet light. the film is manufactured to react with visible light. a digital camera works in a very similar way. however, instead of film a digital camera uses a sensor. that sensor records visible light and generates an image.
images of stellar objects (like this blackhole) are taken in the same fashion. the difference is the sensor being used is not recording visible light but instead radio wave light. the image is a true representation of the radio waves that are being emitted by the blackhole the same way a Polaroid is a true representation of the the dog your photographing.
what makes a photograph a "real" photograph? how does a camera work? imagine you're photographing a dog... a film camera receives light, visible light received by the camera bounces off a couple mirrors and chemically reacts with the film to produce the image. that same reaction would not happen with infrared or ultraviolet light. the film is manufactured to react with visible light. a digital camera works in a very similar way. however, instead of film a digital camera uses a sensor. that sensor records visible light and generates an image.
images of stellar objects (like this blackhole) are taken in the same fashion. the difference is the sensor being used is not recording visible light but instead radio wave light. the image is a true representation of the radio waves that are being emitted by the blackhole the same way a Polaroid is a true representation of the the dog your photographing.
