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 ...
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?
Or maybe not.
3.5 Billion light years from here.
So already happened. A very, very, very long time ago.
We’re already dead, just don’t know it yet.
Any chance of the black hole opening in D.C.?
I hope they have good insurance.
The black hole is already there. It’s where our money goes - never to be seen again.
No, they are Snap Chatting it live.
I sense a disturbance in the force.
DC is already a black hole.
Where trillions of dollars disappear every year.
And where, if you go there as a politician, all your values disappear as well..........
Correct. But the gravitational wave front that blew away all the stars of the galaxy like leaves in storm also has yet to arrive here (although greatly attenuated; we’re safe). Should be interesting to watch (in 100,000 years or so).
A contrarian word of advice: Some galaxies are only 10 feet away, but are very, very tiny.
I believe that the reason we won’t ever detect the existence of other sentient life in the universe is because it’s duration is so darn short. Our human existence has been the space-time equivalent of the blink of an eye!
Bush’s fault.
Bush’s fault. Bush and those damned SUVs.
Womyn and minorities will be hardest hit.
Think of it like when NBC does the Olympics with their “live to tape” thing. We get to watch it like it’s live, even though it’s really on delay.
Strange things happen in black holes... Like black a**holes getting elected to high office.
Great analogy. I get a headache when I think about it too deeply, LOL.
Every time 0 opens his mouth
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.