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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Two Black Holes Merge
NASA ^ | February 12, 2016 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 02/12/2016 12:16:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Explanation: Just press play to watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time. Set on a cosmic stage the black holes are posed in front of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh both inside and outside the Einstein rings even after the black holes have merged. Dubbed GW150914, the gravitational waves detected by LIGO are consistent with the merger of 36 and 29 solar mass black holes at a distance of 1.3 billion light-years. The final, single black hole has 62 times the mass of the Sun, with the remaining 3 solar masses converted into energy in gravitational waves.

February 12, 2016

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; blackhole; blackholes; gravitywaves; ligo; science; stringtheory
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To: SunkenCiv

Have they names or perhaps an AKA? If not could offer a few if given the chance.

Thank you, BTW, this is totally mind blowing but just about everything encompassed by our universe is beyond comprehension. Wonder upon wonders - it never ceases to amaze.


21 posted on 02/12/2016 12:56:47 PM PST by V K Lee (u TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP to TRIUMPH Follow the lead MAKE AMERICA GREAT)
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To: SunkenCiv

What is hidden behind the black circles somebody overlaid on the pic?


22 posted on 02/12/2016 12:58:47 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: ETL

for people with Meniere’s disease, your post is problematic.

I am of those people. LOL


23 posted on 02/12/2016 12:59:09 PM PST by txnativegop (Tired of liberals, even a few in my own family.)
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To: All

Re: post 17

Is it just me, or can you actually stop any of those “spinning” wheels you choose simply by looking at it directly?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3396299/posts?page=17#17


24 posted on 02/12/2016 12:59:16 PM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: txnativegop

Sorry! Whatever you got, I think I have a touch of it too!


25 posted on 02/12/2016 1:01:52 PM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: ETL

The disease causes VERTIGO and it is so bad I wouldn’t wish it on Obama.


26 posted on 02/12/2016 1:04:22 PM PST by txnativegop (Tired of liberals, even a few in my own family.)
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To: SunkenCiv

This is as ground breaking as when Galileo made the first telescope. We have a totally new way of observing the universe. There are long term plans to place a group of satellites in space to shoot lasers at each other over large distances to detect even fainter gravity waves.


27 posted on 02/12/2016 1:06:37 PM PST by C19fan
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To: V K Lee
just about everything encompassed by our universe is beyond comprehension. Wonder upon wonders - it never ceases to amaze.

Yet much of it is going on right inside each of us, from the mysterious quantum mechanical roots of consciousnesses to the atoms and sub-atomic matter that somehow come together to make us living beings. We're basically a complex collection of positive/negative particles and energy.

28 posted on 02/12/2016 1:19:23 PM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: ETL

Yes, this, too, is wondrous is it not? Every little thing planned to work in rhythm with such intricacy. The knowledge to see this is indeed too much to comprehend. Life is truly a miracle. No matter how much and how often minds ponder this, mouths continue to hang open in awe of what is around us.


29 posted on 02/12/2016 1:39:25 PM PST by V K Lee (u TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP to TRIUMPH Follow the lead MAKE AMERICA GREAT)
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To: V K Lee
No matter how much and how often minds ponder this, mouths continue to hang open in awe of what is around us.

Yet the vast majority of people have nearly zero knowledge or real interest in any of this stuff.

30 posted on 02/12/2016 1:46:52 PM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: ETL; Paul46360; TribalPrincess2U; txnativegop; Eddie01; fhayek; FredZarguna; notdownwidems; ...

Two holes converged in a blacker hole,
and glad that I was nowhere near,
a safe distance away I stood,
and looked until I got bored,
to where it bent the local space...


31 posted on 02/12/2016 3:06:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Little by little the night turns around,
counting the leaves which tremble at dawn.
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning.
Under the eaves the swallow is resting.

Over the mountain, watching the watcher,
breaking the darkness, waking the grapevine,
one inch of love is one inch of shadow.
Love is the shadow which ripens the vine.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun.


32 posted on 02/12/2016 3:21:14 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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