<p>A number of pictures and some animations similar to the ones below have had much press recently. Clearly the colours are artificial, but I wondered how accurately the represent the geometry of the system -- the relative sizes of the event horizon and the thin and thick accretion disks, the distance from the companion star, and so on.</p>

<p>Does anyone know.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/a6J7z.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/a6J7z.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/XrHME.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/XrHME.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>The images are taken from popular press sites, but seem to originate from <a href="https://www.icrar.org/Cygni" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ICRAR</a>, where they are described as "artists impressions". I would nevertheless be interested to know how accurate a brief their artists were working from.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T14:39:39.240Z
Post sources. Otherwise no one can help you. Possibly this visualisation is the outcome of a MHD simulation, and would then represent the real system geometry, but without a source noone can say.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T14:45:24.640Z
@AtmosphericPrisonEscape Source added as far back as I can trace.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T15:33:15.650Z
The publication this article is about is an observation about the jets changing direction. So probably, as the image captions say on this website, those are just artists impressions.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T15:35:10.690Z
@AtmosphericPrisonEscape Sure. But someone on here might know more from other sources.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T16:09:02.133Z
I guess it would depend on what degree of accuracy would be acceptable, but as these are for illustrative purposes only I think it would be fair to say they are not very accurate at all.
bushell
<black-hole><binary-star>
How accurate are the new visualisations of V404 Cygni
Steve Linton
# How accurate are the new visualisations of V404 Cygni

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-05-01)

A number of pictures and some animations similar to the ones below have had much press recently. Clearly the colours are artificial, but I wondered how accurately the represent the geometry of the system -- the relative sizes of the event horizon and the thin and thick accretion disks, the distance from the companion star, and so on.

Does anyone know.
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/a6J7z.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/a6J7z.jpg)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/XrHME.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/XrHME.png)

The images are taken from popular press sites, but seem to originate from [ICRAR](https://www.icrar.org/Cygni), where they are described as "artists impressions". I would nevertheless be interested to know how accurate a brief their artists were working from.

**Tags:** black-hole, binary-star
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Post sources. Otherwise no one can help you. Possibly this visualisation is the outcome of a MHD simulation, and would then represent the real system geometry, but without a source noone can say.  
> **username_0**: @AtmosphericPrisonEscape Source added as far back as I can trace.  
> **username_1**: The publication this article is about is an observation about the jets changing direction. So probably, as the image captions say on this website, those are just artists impressions.  
> **username_0**: @AtmosphericPrisonEscape Sure. But someone on here might know more from other sources.  
> **username_2**: I guess it would depend on what degree of accuracy would be acceptable, but as these are for illustrative purposes only I think it would be fair to say they are not very accurate at all.  

---

## 0 answers

