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Massive black hole discovered near heart of the Milky Way (NOT Sagitarius A*)

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Finally found Dumbass Don's heart?


On a serious note this is both terrifying and facinating
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
TIME BEDROOM. HERE WE COME
interstellar-tesseract.jpg
 
Not really how it works with black holes. Even something like an mass-extinction-style asteroid heading toward earth would have less warning than a black hole suddenly being close enough to destroy the world. This is more in the way of the kind of fascinating, "doesn't effect us in any way" type of space news. Definitely cool to read about either way.

Unless your JJ Abrahms.
 
You could theoretically live a whole, full lifetime within a black hole before reaching the singularity. Just because we can't see past the event horizon doesn't mean it's a horrifying, molecule rending, wood chipper. It's just relativity. If you were moving near the speed of light, and everything else around you was moving at the same speed would you even be able to tell that anything was out of the ordinary?

Here's a creepy thought: What if this little portion of the universe was actually beyond the event horizon of a super-massive black hole?

I don't think the word super-massive would do, in fact just what would you call something that big?
 
You could theoretically live a whole, full lifetime within a black hole before reaching the singularity. Just because we can't see past the event horizon doesn't mean it's a horrifying, molecule rending, wood chipper. It's just relativity. If you were moving near the speed of light, and everything else around you was moving at the same speed would you even be able to tell that anything was out of the ordinary?

Here's a creepy thought: What if this little portion of the universe was actually beyond the event horizon of a super-massive black hole?

Since an instant seems like a lifetime, your actual death would be drawn out like that as well.
 
If my remains could be shot to the center of a black hole, that would be rad.

By the time it took to get to one, the entire human race would be extinct. Also likely your remains would would probably get knocked off course by the various other space phenomena out there.
 
Why is this exciting?

Everyone is entertaining this question and giving you answers, but I'm left wondering, "why not?"

By the time it took to get to one, the entire human race would be extinct. Also likely your remains would would probably get knocked off course by the various other space phenomena out there.

I don't care about the human race, it's just a neat thought that your matter would become part of a singularity.

While traveling deep space into a black hole would be cooler, traveling 50k - 100k years through space while preserved is still a better option than cremation or a grave
 

MadeULook

Member
Well, all of us here will be long gone before this becomes an actual threat but it's still awesome to hear about space. One of the most fascinating subjects out there.

By the time it took to get to one, the entire human race would be extinct. Also likely your remains would would probably get knocked off course by the various other space phenomena out there.
Aren't you just a barrel of fun.
 

Bakercat

Member
So, when are we just gonna shove a video camera on a robot and shoot it straight into the black hole? I bet the other side is something really stupid...
 
Good thing we are in the bumble fuck of the galaxy. I can't imagine how many life forms were lost here. Hopefully it's not coming for us cuz of
Trump
 

PeaceUK

Member
So, when are we just gonna shove a video camera on a robot and shoot it straight into the black hole? I bet the other side is something really stupid...

You're thinking of a wormhole, a black hole is basically a solid sphere of mass so dense its gravity prevents even light from bouncing off it.
 
Guys, crazy idea here,

What if the black holes at centres of galaxies, have orbiting around them smaller black holes, in the same way our sun has planets orbiting it.

Why wouldn't an orbital model of black holes occur at the centre of galaxies and what would their "systems" look like?
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Guys, crazy idea here,

What if the black holes at centres of galaxies, have orbiting around them smaller black holes, in the same way our sun has planets orbiting it.

Why wouldn't an orbital model of black holes occur at the centre of galaxies and what would their "systems" look like?


Not a crazy idea but in fact a thing that happens and supermassive black holes are often merged smaller holes.
 

Xe4

Banned
That's super fascinating. I think it'd be the first intermediate sized black hole ever discovered too, which we've been looking for forever now. All others have either been stellar mass (<~10 times the mas of the sun) or supermassive (~1,000,000 times the mass of the sun or more).

It would also add to the hypothesis that the supermassive black hole was created by combining smaller intermediate black holes together. It also suggests that there was a merger with a dwarf galaxy in the not too distant past.

You could theoretically live a whole, full lifetime within a black hole before reaching the singularity. Just because we can't see past the event horizon doesn't mean it's a horrifying, molecule rending, wood chipper. It's just relativity. If you were moving near the speed of light, and everything else around you was moving at the same speed would you even be able to tell that anything was out of the ordinary?

Here's a creepy thought: What if this little portion of the universe was actually beyond the event horizon of a super-massive black hole?

Nah, you'd get spaghettified pretty quickly after passing the event horizon. It's just observers would never physically see you pass the event horizon because of the way general relativity works, just get closer and closer and you would become dimmer and more red until you dispensary. You would still experience time normally.

That's a common misconception. Sagittarius A*, the super massive blackhole at the center of the galaxy doesn't keep the galaxy together. Black holes aren't particularly special in terms of gravitational strength, it's still a function of mass/distance^2. As massive as it is, the galaxy is several orders bigger than it, both in terms of bulk mass and volume.
In particular, most astronomers think it is dark matter that has gathered spherically around the milky way that is keeping it together, as that contains the vast majority of mass in the galaxy (and universe).
 

jotun?

Member
The most likely cause, according to computer models, was a black hole no more than 1.4 trillion km across.

1.4 trillion km across would put its mass at several hundred billion solar masses... a tad more than that 100000 number
 

Asbel

Member
Observations from the Alma telescope in Chile showed that molecules in the elliptical cloud, which is 200 light years from the centre of the Milky Way and 150 trillion kilometres wide, were being pulled around by immense gravitational forces. The most likely cause, according to computer models, was a black hole no more than 1.4 trillion km across.
These numbers are so crazy to think about. Like trillion.. with a T.
 
How far does earth need to be from a black hole to start feeling it's effects? And if it inches closer, what would be the doom of our earth (and solar system) look like?
 
I read our sun is too small to become a black hole. SMALL.
Not really. The Sun will become a white dwarf star. Only very massive stars, heavier than 30 suns or so, become black holes.

What is in the very center of a black hole?
Nobody knows. Formally, it's a region of infinite energy density. Most likely, a more complete (quantum) theory of gravity is needed to properly resolve the singularity.
 

BizzyBum

Member
Black holes are awesome. I wish I could turn on "god mode" and go through one.. is it just blackness? A portal or wormhole to another part of the universe or even a whole other universe entirely? What happens to the shit that gets trapped, is it destroyed or transferred out somewhere? How can stuff just cease to exist in there.

duuuuuude
 

Xe4

Banned
1.4 trillion km across would put its mass at several hundred billion solar masses... a tad more than that 100000 number

Yeah that's weird. Makes you wonder where they got the number from, because it's nowhere in the Nature article. Like, did they fuck up when doing simple arithmetic?

The diameter would be ~590,000 km across, assuming you double the Schwarzchild radius.
 
Black holes are awesome. I wish I could turn on "god mode" and go through one.. is it just blackness? A portal or wormhole to another part of the universe or even a whole other universe entirely? What happens to the shit that gets trapped, is it destroyed or transferred out somewhere? How can stuff just cease to exist in there.

duuuuuude

I thought the main theory was that all matter just gets super squished up into a little ball, including light. You'd just go into a really dark sphere with a piece of tightly compacted trash in the middle. Seems kind of dull to me.
 
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