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Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered (18 billion suns)
New Scientist ^
| 1/10/08
| David Shiga
Posted on 01/10/2008 12:52:18 PM PST by LibWhacker
The quasar OJ287 contains two black holes (this
slightly dated illustration lists the larger black hole's
mass as 17 billion Suns, though researchers now estimate
it is 18 billion Suns). The smaller black hole crashes
through a disc of material around the larger one twice
every orbit, creating bright outbursts (Illustration:
VISPA)
The most massive known black hole in the universe has been discovered, weighing in with the mass of 18 billion Suns. Observing the orbit of a smaller black hole around this monster has allowed astronomers to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; bigbang; biggest; black; blackhole; dividebyzero; doomsday; gammaraybursts; gigo; haltonarp; hole; science; space; stringtheory; supernova
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To: LibWhacker
Yes, it is. Astronomers often speak in terms of how many solar masses an object contains: black holes, giant stars, galaxies, etc. "...it's full of stars!"
61
posted on
01/10/2008 1:39:50 PM PST
by
weegee
(Those who surrender personal liberty to lower global temperatures will receive neither.)
To: KC Burke; HamiltonJay
"At 3.5 billion Light Years away we ought to recede fast enough to not see it for another billion years."You'll see it in 10000 years. What you're seeing now happened 3.5 billion years ago, so just add hte 10K yrs to that.
62
posted on
01/10/2008 1:40:16 PM PST
by
spunkets
("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
To: frithguild
One of these is already named after OJ.
63
posted on
01/10/2008 1:40:47 PM PST
by
weegee
(Those who surrender personal liberty to lower global temperatures will receive neither.)
To: dinoparty
Ask for nothing and you’ll receive it in abundance.
64
posted on
01/10/2008 1:42:28 PM PST
by
weegee
(Those who surrender personal liberty to lower global temperatures will receive neither.)
To: LibWhacker
Hmmmmm.... I’m gonna need a lot more line for this fission hole....
65
posted on
01/10/2008 1:42:47 PM PST
by
theDentist
(Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
To: spunkets
66
posted on
01/10/2008 1:44:13 PM PST
by
weegee
(Those who surrender personal liberty to lower global temperatures will receive neither.)
To: advertising guy
"then all that means it is severly smaller in the middle than her edges ?"Not sure what you mean by that.
67
posted on
01/10/2008 1:44:32 PM PST
by
spunkets
("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
To: spunkets
me either..............lol
went back and re read the comments so still trying to form a smart question...........I’ll get back to ya
in 2009....................lmao
68
posted on
01/10/2008 1:46:16 PM PST
by
advertising guy
(If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
To: weegee
LOL, I’m going to add that to my file of quotes!
69
posted on
01/10/2008 1:47:09 PM PST
by
LibWhacker
(Democrats are phony Americans)
To: weegee
Yes, we’re seeing what happened 3.5 billion years ago.
70
posted on
01/10/2008 1:47:24 PM PST
by
spunkets
("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
To: weegee
This brings to mind the song ‘Brighter Than A Thousand Suns’.
Except it was about the nuclear bomb.
71
posted on
01/10/2008 1:57:36 PM PST
by
wastedyears
(This is my BOOMSTICK)
To: adorno
The way I understood black holes, all accretion goes into a singularity that is by all indications, smaller than an atom. You are correct; the singularity is smaller than an atom, but what changes in radius based on mass will be the event horizon. The differences between the black holes will be their event horizons or where the orbital velocity required to maintain orbit exceeds the speed of light.
Get within the event horizon and you will never get back out.
72
posted on
01/10/2008 2:07:50 PM PST
by
Centurion2000
(It's only arrogance if you can't back it up.)
To: spunkets
We may see it in 10,000 years but my point is that it aleady happend 3.5 billion years ago plus ten thousand, give or take a Clinton Convention speech duration unit to the 85th power.
73
posted on
01/10/2008 2:14:14 PM PST
by
KC Burke
(Men of intemperate minds can never be free...their passions forge their fetters.)
To: LibWhacker
Event horizon on the big one : 178.671973 Astronomical Units
On the little one :0.99262207 Astronomical Units
18 billion solar mass BH vs 100 million SM BH
74
posted on
01/10/2008 2:16:11 PM PST
by
Centurion2000
(It's only arrogance if you can't back it up.)
To: weegee
Holy Cow! Is that Cankles herself trying to karate chop off her left hand?
75
posted on
01/10/2008 2:16:54 PM PST
by
TexGuy
To: weegee
“Theres a dog star...”
__________________________________________________________________
Gosh, that’s Sirius!
</groaner>
76
posted on
01/10/2008 2:17:04 PM PST
by
Mugwump
To: cripplecreek
GRBs emanate out the poles. So, just make sure you’re off to the side when it spits them out.
To: LibWhacker
How did all this ‘evolve’?
78
posted on
01/10/2008 2:18:30 PM PST
by
ex-snook
("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
To: hellbender
ROFL, you got that right.
(Still giggling)
79
posted on
01/10/2008 2:22:20 PM PST
by
garyhope
(It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
To: ex-snook
Gravity tells almost the whole story, from the Big Bang to the present, when we have one monstrous black hole about to dine on another monstrous black hole.
In fact, this moment in the life of that larger black hole is beautifully illustrative of how it grew to such colossal proportions in the first place; i.e., by sucking in all the mass near it for billions of years, including other black holes, thereby growing ever larger — without limit, for all practical purposes.
80
posted on
01/10/2008 2:37:21 PM PST
by
LibWhacker
(Democrats are phony Americans)
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