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More Evidence for Coming Black Hole Collision (total mass > a billion suns)
NYTimes ^ | 9/16/15 | Dennis Overbye

Posted on 09/22/2015 9:34:46 AM PDT by LibWhacker

The apocalypse is still on, apparently — at least in a galaxy about 3.5 billion light-years from here.

Last winter, a team of Caltech astronomers reported that two supermassive black holes appeared to be spiraling together toward a cataclysmic collision that could bring down the curtains in that galaxy.

The evidence was a rhythmic flickering from the galaxy’s nucleus, a quasar known as PG 1302-102, which Matthew Graham and his colleagues interpreted as the fatal mating dance of a pair of black holes with a total mass of more than a billion suns. Their merger, the astronomers calculated, could release as much energy as 100 million supernova explosions, mostly in the form of violent ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves that would blow the stars out of that hapless galaxy like leaves off a roof.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: black; blackhole; blackholecollision; blackholes; collision; galaxy; gravitationalwave; gravitationalwaves; hole; pg1302102; quasar; supermassive
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To: LibWhacker
How do we know our universe with it's Galaxies and Black Holes is not already inside a Super-Dumper Colossus Black Hole?
21 posted on 09/22/2015 9:49:08 AM PDT by TexasCajun (#BlackViolenceMatters)
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To: fwdude

I knew it!!!

Horton DID hear a Who!!!!!


22 posted on 09/22/2015 9:53:31 AM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: LibWhacker

I told you all this climate change was serious


23 posted on 09/22/2015 9:55:19 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: LibWhacker
I wonder if there will ever be an end to such discoveries?

It will end with the discontinuation of tax money grants to "scientists" who make up or embellish scary, entertaining things with which to regale us. Like AGW/CO2.

24 posted on 09/22/2015 9:57:12 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: LibWhacker

Advanced LIGO just came on-line for science operation four days ago, on 18 September 2015.


25 posted on 09/22/2015 9:57:28 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: LibWhacker
Black Hole collision...?
26 posted on 09/22/2015 9:59:27 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: TexasCajun

Chuck Norris burps Black Holes so they are like a popcorn fart in a whirlwind.


27 posted on 09/22/2015 10:09:13 AM PDT by MikeSteelBe (Treason is as treason does, demons is as demUNs does.)
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To: TexasCajun

I don’t think they know anything about the laws of physics inside black holes. Could our universe be a black hole? I was reading something about that a few weeks ago and I thought the best argument against it was that not only do we observe our universe expanding, we see it expanding faster and faster in time.

It doesn’t seem like we could possibly observe that situation if we were inside a black hole where presumably everything, including space, is rushing inward toward the center.


28 posted on 09/22/2015 10:10:20 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: headsonpikes

Coming soon: The War of Worldcraft!


29 posted on 09/22/2015 10:11:03 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs (Had FDR been GOP, there would have been no World Wars, just "The Great War" and "Roosevelt's Wars".)
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To: LibWhacker
...and don't Black Holes massive gravity reduce all objects to their basic elements?

Squishes them to nothingness?

Always fun to look at the enormity and strangeness of our universe.

Thanks for posting.

30 posted on 09/22/2015 10:16:35 AM PDT by TexasCajun (#BlackViolenceMatters)
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To: LibWhacker

The most important question... how can we blame this on global warming?


31 posted on 09/22/2015 10:21:40 AM PDT by ArcadeQuarters ("Immigration Reform" is ballot stuffing)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"If it’s 3.5 billion light years away from us, doesn’t that mean it happened 3.5 billion years ago and the light from the event is just now getting here?"

Only from your frame of reference.

32 posted on 09/22/2015 10:22:17 AM PDT by mlo
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Kee-rect. Already happened in real-time (whatever that means) but won’t be detectable here for-—ah-— a good long while.


33 posted on 09/22/2015 10:22:43 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Semper Fi.)
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To: LibWhacker

That prospect is nothing compared to what will happen when our universe bumps into another one.


34 posted on 09/22/2015 10:44:25 AM PDT by Defiant (I wouldn't have to mansplain if it weren't for all those wymidiots.)
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To: LibWhacker

If the combined mass is greater than a billion suns, why is the energy only worth 100 million supernovae? Is only 1 mass in 10 gonna blow?


35 posted on 09/22/2015 10:53:22 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: tanknetter
A very, very, very long time ago.

...in a galaxy far, far away.

36 posted on 09/22/2015 10:54:02 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Arlis

>DC is already a black hole.<

.
That is racist


37 posted on 09/22/2015 10:57:10 AM PDT by 353FMG
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To: ShadowAce

That reason is going to be buried in the equations. Remember, this isn’t the explosion of a billion suns, it’s the merger of two black holes having the mass of a billion suns. And the resulting gravitational hiccup will have the energy of 100 million supernovae. Other than that, I can’t tell you much, not knowing the mathematics.


38 posted on 09/22/2015 11:03:21 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

...caused by global warming.../s


39 posted on 09/22/2015 11:08:35 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (The only crimes that are 100% preventable are those committed by illegal aliens)
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To: ShadowAce

Interesting that a significant percentage of the total mass involved will be lost to producing a gravitational wave.

All my mass could be converted to a gravitational wave and they probably couldn’t detect it even if it happened right next to the LIGO detector (which is a total, perhaps very erroneous, guess on my part!).

OTOH, all my mass could be instantly converted to EM radiation via some nuclear process and, OMG, would they ever be able to detect it, and detect it far, far away... Makes you go, “Hmmm...”


40 posted on 09/22/2015 11:16:43 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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