NASA telescope sees black hole gulping remote star

Reuters ^ | Tue Dec 5, 7:18 PM ET | By Will Dunham

[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.

[Nathan Zachary]

That radiation theory isn't exactly carved in stone either, and is currently under scrutiny because of other discoveries. I don't know all the gobbledygook on the subject, but there are articles that have been written recently on the subject if you are interested in that sort of stuff.

Using questionable theory to produce even more theory is silly. Keeps one busy I suppose, like a dog that chases his tail. The same questions get to be reanswered over and over again.

[One_American]

Here is a detailed image from the NASA telescope!

[reagan_fanatic]

"Stupid hungry black holes..."

[mountn man]

A dormant black hole is one that is in between meals.

Oh, like Rosie O'Donut.

[colorado tanker]

Ummm! Tastes just like chicken!

[Pox]

True, and that in turn causes a 'refinement' in theories and mathematical models.

Our knowledge of the universe is only at the 'kindergarten' stage, and the more we learn, the more questions arise from that knowledge.

[wayne_b24]

oprah and michael richards?

[Nathan Zachary]

"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."

Jupiter(?) stretches out comets like speggetti all the time, that's why it's known as a comet killer. As a comet approaches any large bodys' gravitational field, it accellerates, this would "shift' it's light to the red end of the spectrum as well. There is nothing to say that these observed events aren't simply smaller stars passing near larger bodies we can't see, speeding up as they enter their gravity field and getting pulled apart. In fact if one of these objects passes behind one of these large bodies, it would look as if it was ate up.
And while black hole theory is worked to fit spiral shaped galaxies, it doesn't fit those that aren't. These odd shaped galaxies shouldn't exist, but they do. Excuse me for not using the correct terms, But I think you know what I'm talking about. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to this stuff, just in passing.

[colorado tanker]

No soup for you!

[Sundog]

I bookmarked your second-best animation ever.

That begs a timid question, What is the best-ever?

[JerseyJohn61]

About not being able to see a black hole...

Well, one cannot normally see the wind either,
but the effects it has on other objects is
very observable....JJ61

[Redcitizen]

That is one huge hamburger. Where is that from?

[Bones75]

"[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.]

I thought the same thing. I am trying to picture a dormant tornado or hurricane. How does this work?"

A black hole that is not currently (or when viewed) pulling in any mass from outside to inside the vent horizon.

It is easy to infer the existence of a black hole, cygnus x-1, IIRC, is a good example. You have a star orbiting around in a tight orbit, clearly affected by a very dense, but unseen object. Nothing known could have that much mass (mass which is evident by it's effects on the orbiting bright star) except a black hole.

A star would just orbit around in a circle out in space for no reason, that type of motion infers a very, very dense, unseen object which has that start gravitationally locked in. Were that star to nudge close enough to the black hole, it too would pass the 'point of no return' and eventually get pulled inside the event horizon.

[Bones75]

Ugh, so many typos in that post... :(

Hey mods, how 'bout that "Edit" feature...

[samson1097]

The best flash animation ever (at least, my favorite):

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html

This animation is made by Hitachi in the style of school house rocks. This is a substantially nerdier animation explaining perpendicular storage on hard drives. That was a recent breakthrough to store up to 10 times more information on a hard drive. Hope you enjoy.

[Sundog]

Enjoyed it very much.

(I've sold lots of software to Hitachi to design chips. They are a good customer.)

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the ping. :-)