At a distance of 55 million light years from Earth, and with a mass equal to 2.4e12 solar masses, calculate the angular diameter of that black hole's event horizon as viewed from the Earth. (express your answer in arcseconds)
The diameter of that black hole's event horizon (doubled Schwarzschild radius, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius) is given as
where is the gravitational constant, is the speed of light, and is the mass of the black hole. Since it is equal to 2.4e12 solar masses, obtain:
Thus, obtain:
The angular diameter (in radians) is:
where is the distance from the Earth to the black hole. Since this distance is 55 million light years, and one light year is approximately , the distance is:
Thus, the angular diameter is:
To convert it to arcseconds, calculate:
Answer. 0.009''.
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