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NASA telescope sees black hole gulping remote star
Reuters ^
| Tue Dec 5, 7:18 PM ET
| By Will Dunham
Posted on 12/06/2006 7:58:30 AM PST by Redcitizen
A giant black hole displaying horrifying table manners has been caught in the act of guzzling a star in a galaxy 4 billion light-years away, scientists using an orbiting NASA telescope said on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astronomy; blackhole; mmmmmmmstartguzzling; science; star
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To: glaseatr
The image probably looks like a cloudy glass of water or something. Highly unispiring and nothing to look at. So, a little bit of advertising to get our hopes up.
41
posted on
12/06/2006 8:51:15 AM PST
by
Redcitizen
(My other OmniMech is a Masakari)
To: Redcitizen
Did the perp look anything like this?...
42
posted on
12/06/2006 8:51:40 AM PST
by
Hatteras
To: Pox
No, your explanation is right Pox.
Super novae(1a, or some such designation) are
believed to have a consistent brightness value
and can be used as a reliable yardstick....JJ61
43
posted on
12/06/2006 8:54:43 AM PST
by
JerseyJohn61
(Better Late Than Never.......sometimes over lapping is worth the effort....)
To: Hatteras
44
posted on
12/06/2006 8:56:24 AM PST
by
Redcitizen
(My other OmniMech is a Masakari)
To: Tenacious 1
Actually, the way I understand it, the matter is simply added to the 'soup' inside the event horizon (the point at which nothing, not even light, can escape the gravitational pull of the black hole).
The wormhole speculation is theoretical and likely not actually viable. Black Holes don't eat in one end and expel from the other, but in a way, they do dissipate according to Stephen Hawking (see: Hawking radiation) over probably trillions of years.
They could be considered the ultimate garbage disposal.
45
posted on
12/06/2006 8:57:42 AM PST
by
Pox
(If it's a Coward you are searching for, you need look no further than the Democrats.)
To: Hatteras
ROTFLMAO.
That's my favorite Trek episode. :)
46
posted on
12/06/2006 8:58:34 AM PST
by
Pox
(If it's a Coward you are searching for, you need look no further than the Democrats.)
To: Redcitizen
I recognize it as from an old Star Trek episode. It was way bigger than the Enterprise and tried to eat it, IIRC.
To: Redcitizen
Sure they did. Whenever I hear "scientists say", 99.9% of the time it turns out to be B.S. It's just a "give us more taxpayers money so we can spend our lives slurping at the public trough" carrot the dangle to keep the cash flowing.
A black hole wouldn't be seen gulping a star, the light wouldn't be able to escape the gravity, so the (B.S.) theory goes. More likely, it was just a star that burned out a billion years ago (so the B.S. theory goes) and the light finally stopped reaching earth.
Her's a much better theory- there is a speck of dust on the lens.
To: cripplecreek
You know, there is already plenty of evidence of water on Mars, most of it subsurface and much of it as ice. This one could be a hot water spring. If they are waiting for discovery of water, they could have stopped waiting several years ago.
49
posted on
12/06/2006 9:06:05 AM PST
by
RightWhale
(RTRA DLQS GSCW)
To: bkepley
A dormant black hole is one that is in between meals.
50
posted on
12/06/2006 9:06:54 AM PST
by
fish hawk
(.)
To: bkepley
"What the heck is a "dormant" black hole. It either is or isn't a black hole I would think and once it's a black hole it stays a black hole." It's scientific 'gobbledygook' for "We can't see this unseen imaginary black hole doing anything, so this unseen imaginary thing must be asleep somehow. We need more money to investigate this further, and more chalk to write impressive looking calculus on the blackboard."
To: Nathan Zachary
You are correct, the light cannot escape the gravity. However, the matter that is circling the Black hole just outside the event horizon is moving at typically millions of miles per hour, and that matter is heated up from such a velocity, and when matter gets that hot, it emits radiation in different varieties, typically x-rays. UV radiation was emitted from the stars matter that was being swallowed just prior to it passing the point of no return, and that 'signature' is the marker we use to detect Black Holes. According to our current knowledge, a Black Hole devouring a star is the only known mechanism to create such a flash of UV radiation.
52
posted on
12/06/2006 9:09:44 AM PST
by
Pox
(If it's a Coward you are searching for, you need look no further than the Democrats.)
To: Hatteras
Thats my all time favorite episode, "The Doomsday Machine"
Our last child was a girl but had it been a boy we were going to name him Decker.
53
posted on
12/06/2006 9:11:49 AM PST
by
#1CTYankee
(That's right, I have no proof. So what of it??)
To: RightWhale
"You know, there is already plenty of evidence of water on Mars, most of it subsurface and much of it as ice." No there isn't. In fact, there is just as much evidence that a large ice comet hit mars and melted, which caused these dried up riverbeds. Notice they are found in craters and on the edges of craters. It makes more sense than the solid comet hitting mars theory, uncovering ice which then melted.
One theory does not require further funding, the other does. It isn't suprizing which one "scientists" go with.
To: Pox
"That's my favorite Trek episode. :)"Mine too, check out my profile page and see what my son's name is.
55
posted on
12/06/2006 9:14:31 AM PST
by
#1CTYankee
(That's right, I have no proof. So what of it??)
To: #1CTYankee
56
posted on
12/06/2006 9:15:37 AM PST
by
Pox
(If it's a Coward you are searching for, you need look no further than the Democrats.)
To: Hatteras
LOL, where did you find that? I was looking all over google to see if I could find it!
57
posted on
12/06/2006 9:18:45 AM PST
by
badbass
To: Hatteras
I always thought that looked like a flashlight wrapped in foil.
-PJ
To: Nathan Zachary
You are right that you wouldn't see the actual star go in, but, you can see the effects of the gravity on the star BEFORE it goes in. Until the ingoing matter crosses the event horizon, the gravitation effects would be pulling and tugging on the star, stretching it like a strand of spaghetti. Besides that, the gravity would also slow down the light coming from the area, thus shifting the light into the red end of the spectrum.
Then, as the matter from the star does cross the event horizon, the gravity differences from one side of the star, and even one side of individual atoms, rips the star or atom apart, releasing enormous amounts of energy, some of which goes toward the black hole, some of which goes out into the universe.
Black holes aren't like what they show in the movies. If the Sun became a black hole all of a sudden, gravitationally we wouldn't notice, as the gravity wouldn't change. It's not like a giant vacuum cleaner.
59
posted on
12/06/2006 9:25:56 AM PST
by
Conan the Librarian
(The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
To: Tenacious 1
Someone has got to be held accountable for this atrocity. And, by the way, what is the statute of limitations on a crime of this nature?In other words, Bush's fault!
60
posted on
12/06/2006 9:27:57 AM PST
by
mountn man
(The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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