Posted on 03/10/2009 3:45:41 PM PDT by TaraP
Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe. New results have placed an upper limit on the current size of black holes - and at fifty billion suns it's pretty damn big. That's a hundred thousand tredagrams, and you'll never get the chance to use that word in relation to anything else.
Black holes are regions of space where matter is so dense that regular physics just breaks down. You might think physical laws are immutable - you can't get out of gravitational attraction the same way you can get out of a speeding ticket - but beyond a certain level laws which determine how matter is regulated are simply overloaded and material is crushed down into something that's less an object and more a region of altered space.
While there's theoretically no upper limit on how big a black hole can be, there are hard limits on how big they could have become by now. The universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, and even the most voracious black hole can only suck in matter at a certain rate. The bigger the black hole, the bigger the gravitational field and the faster it can pull in matter - but that same huge gravitational gradient means that the same matter can release huge amounts of radiation as it falls, blasting other matter further away.
Based on this self-regulating maximum rate, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, and the European Southern Observatory, Chile, have calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big" and triple the size of the largest observed black hole, OJ 287.
There are potential problems with this calculation. Based as it is on the radiation outflow from a black hole, new discoveries could change this estimate - though only from "insanely massive" to "ridiculously ginormous."
That’s the mass of half the stars in our galaxy.
huh?
50 billion sun size black hole..there could be one of those pulling all the existing galaxies toward the center of the universe.
“...ridiculously stupidly big”
To calculate masses that large will require a knowledge of maths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj2NOTanzWI
The magnitude and splendor of God's universe is truly incredible.
3 categories for the most massive black holes ever:
“ridiculously stupidly big”
“insanely massive”
“ridiculously ginormous.”
rofl
“The magnitude and splendor of God’s universe is truly incredible. “
very true. compared to the magnitude of his works, we are but ants on the ant hill.
Except, the universe is expanding.
There’s a black hole named OJ?
Well, maybe now that he is in prison. Hahahahahahahaha.
LOL..
Somebody had to say it!
You left out “Hugh.”
Just a thought ... Could it be that a black hole is the result of a mass sufficiently large to suck in all light that comes within some specific distance of that mass?
We know that light bends slightly as it passes our sister planets while moving on to earth.
A black hole named “O”!
LOL
The amount of inflation Obama is inflicting on us is a tredagram.
What is the difference between an expanding universe and a universe for which all matter is falling down a giant black hole?
Funny you say this..
From a BBC Article in 2005
Why the Sun seems to be ‘dimming’
We are all seeing rather less of the Sun, according to scientists who have been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements.
They have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface has been gradually falling.
Paradoxically, the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater threat to society than previously thought.
The effect was first spotted by Gerry Stanhill, an English scientist working in Israel.
Cloud changes
Comparing Israeli sunlight records from the 1950s with current ones, Dr Stanhill was astonished to find a large fall in solar radiation.
“There was a staggering 22% drop in the sunlight, and that really amazed me.” Intrigued, he searched records from all around the world, and found the same story almost everywhere he looked.
Sunlight was falling by 10% over the USA, nearly 30% in parts of the former Soviet Union, and even by 16% in parts of the British Isles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm
The largest object in the universe is Zero’s ego.
Is that anything like the Most Fabulous Object in the World (it does exist)?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJGfk9TlBNY
The piggish extravagance of an obviously capitalist galaxy
/s
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