First-Ever Black Hole Photograph Opens Up Galaxy of Memes on Chinese Internet

By now you’ll have no doubt seen the news that a group of scientists — using eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents — have “seen the unseeable” as the New York Times put it, by capturing a photograph of a black hole, “a cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it.”

Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun pic.twitter.com/AymXilKhKe

— Event Horizon 'Scope (@ehtelescope) April 10, 2019

Announced simultaneously in cities around the world, including Shanghai, the Event Horizon Telescope image of M87 is a supermassive deal. On Weibo, it was immediately likened to donuts and the Eye of Sauron.

Yes, the Chinese internet wasted no time in turning this hugely significant scientific discovery into meme fodder (there were plenty of celebratory, educational, and intellectual posts too of course, just that the meme ones are more entertaining).

Some likened it to a section of the coals commonly used to warm houses in the north of China:

Staying on the heat theme, some — including China’s Fire Service account, pictured below — likened it to the small electric heaters that are also a regular feature in Chinese households:

There were lots of donuts:

It was also an excuse to moan about high costs of living in certain areas of China. The caption here is “my wallet/purse”:

Inevitably, there were cats — including this one from A Xin, a member of Taiwanese pop group Mayday (the second hashtag is also trending on Weibo right now: “A shame Mr Hawking didn’t get to see this”):

And there was even a Durex advert made for the announcement (Durex have a strong reputation in China for reacting quickly to news stories with witty posters). Produced in advance of the actual image being revealed, you don’t need to read Chinese to work out what this poster suggested the historic photo would be similar to:

If you ask us though, it looks kind of like an orange RADII swirl….

"As with all great discoveries this is just the beginning" says @EHTelescope director Shep Doeleman #EHTblackhole https://t.co/RjpPjXDt0a pic.twitter.com/ulngkjkNcz

— Physics World (@PhysicsWorld) April 10, 2019