Posted on 11/17/2015 10:55:45 AM PST by Red Badger
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Baum & C. O’Dea (RIT), R. Perley & W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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Scientists often use the combined power of multiple telescopes to reveal the secrets of the Universe – and this image is a prime example of when this technique is strikingly effective.
The yellow-hued object at the centre of the frame is an elliptical galaxy known as Hercules A, seen by the Earth-orbiting NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In normal light, an observer would only see this object floating in the inky blackness of space.
However, view Hercules A with a radio telescope, and the entire region is completely transformed. Stunning red–pink jets of material can be seen billowing outwards from the galaxy – jets that are completely invisible in visible light. They are shown here as seen by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio observatory in New Mexico, USA. These radio observations were combined with the Hubble visible-light data obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 to create this striking composite.
The two jets are composed of hot, high-energy plasma that has been flung from the centre of Hercules A, a process that is driven by a supermassive black hole lurking at the galaxy's heart. This black hole is some 2.5 billion times the mass of the Sun, and around a thousand times more massive than the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.
Hercules A's black hole heats material and accelerates it to nearly the speed of light, sending it flying out into space at phenomenally high speeds. These highly focused jets lose energy as they travel, eventually slowing down and spreading out to form the cloud-like lobes seen here.
The multiple bright rings and knots seen within these lobes suggest that the black hole has sent out numerous successive bursts of material over the course of its history. The jets stretch for around 1.5 million light-years – roughly 15 times the size of the Milky Way.
Hercules A, also known as 3C 348, lies around two billion light-years away. It is one of the brightest sources of radio emission outside our Galaxy.
Explore further: A multi-wavelength view of radio galaxy Hercules A
Yeah, I know...My jokes are sometimes lame.
this is a much preferred picture, when contrasted with jets of gas from Uranus
Alright, astronomers figure it’s 1.5M light-years wide and 2000M light-years away.
I’m gonna stir some pudding here.
If the universe is, as some contend, about 10,000 years old then the very farthest objects we see can’t be more than 10,000 light-years away (any farther, and the light wouldn’t have time to reach us yet).
Crunch the numbers, based on the angle of view the object covers in the sky (however far away it is).
(1,500,000 / 2,000,000,000) * 10,000 = 7.5
So ... under the “young earth” theory, it’s no more than 7.5 light-years wide. Which means, if it really is blowing material out at near speed of light, the formation we see only took about 4 years to create (time from material ejection to current apparent reach) ... so we should see substantial change, say as newly ejected material emerges and travels to current outer reach, within 4 years (a lot less than that, actually, to at least see some notable change). ...which...we aren’t, haven’t, and won’t.
Thoughts?
I’m figuring the speed of light is too fast, and/or celestial bodies too big, to fit in a universe that (ostensibly) small.
(Applies SPF900)
Cripsy critters..................
Or, a billion years before anything bigger than one cell was living on the earth. Plus or minus a couple of weeks.
Jeez, the universe is unfathomably old, and unfathomably large.
Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight's hitting something
That's been known to change the weather...
I guess if the universe were a mere 10,000 years old that would be true. However, the best estimate today is somewhere around 14.5 billion.
"Those girls didn't order a pizza. Why did the pizza guy just show up? And why did he just..... oh my Goodness!"
You get the idea. ;-)
Particularly, if not essentially!
True....this SBH is actually relatively close at 2 billion light years distant considering that just the “observable” universe is 45 billion light years in any direction.
45 billion? Where did you get that from?
I hear Gemini Croquet is having a contest for a trip to one ...
... So what you’re saying is that all this happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...?
>>the ‘observable’ universe is 45 billion light years in any direction.
Wow! Looks like you’re right. I hadn’t heard that before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Size
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Misconceptions_on_its_size
I have to deal with some “young earth” adherents. I’m thinking thru scenarios & reasoning to refute what they consider obvious and I consider absurd.
Thanks Red Badger, extra to APoD.
Thanks Red Badger, extra to APoD.
God has made some really cool stuff.
ping
Mine was really bad too if you didn’t get my joke. :)
Black holes.... suck.
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