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Supermassive black hole 12 billion times larger than the sun detected

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G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
HolyBaikal said:
NeoGAF, please don't post violent horrible pictures like that! They're very disturbing! I didn't want to see that!
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HK-47 said:
Then dont click on the thread, Baikal. This thing is an unreasonable amount of distance from us.
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HolyBaikal said:
Why would I assume something awful like that would be in a thread about black holes? ;_;

Yes, black holes are scary and dangerous. But that doesn't mean I should be seeing pictures of violence with people in them.
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HK-47 said:
Wait you are talking about the Scanners gif? You have never seen that on the internet before?
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HolyBaikal said:
I don't know what scanners is. And no, I haven't! And I wish I never did!
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tumblr_lx9jb1SPMr1qdrpdr.gif
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Despera said:
Why are scientists obsessed with big black holes?
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The center of a black hole is one of the great white whales of science currently because its one of the few places where our current inability to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics represents a real problem. In the vast majority of other situations you're able to effectively ignore either one or the other, but in a black hole you have to understand how gravity works on intensely small scales, something we don't yet
 
O

Opiate

Member
Odrion said:
If you have knowledge of it, then both please. :D
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As you approach a black hole (before the event horizon), both time and space will gradually become increasingly distorted. In regards to space, what you would see is that, as you approached the black hole, it would gradually take up an increasingly large portion of your field of view. That's true of everything, in a small way; even a nickel looks larger as you approach it. But imagine this effect is magnified hugely by the dense gravity; the black hole isn't just "larger," but gradually all encompassing. If you were to turn around to look behind you, the rest of the universe would gradually become a tinier portion of your vision, until eventually (as you hit the event horizon), everything besides the black hole is just one tiny speck directly behind you. The black hole is everywhere else -- up, down, left, right, in front of you. This is space warping around and folding in on itself.

Time would also become warped; specifically, it would slow down. From your perspective, though, you don't slow down -- time for any individual person always seems to go the same speed -- so instead, you see everything else speed up. As you approach the black hole, let's imagine you're still looking behind you, back towards the rest of the universe. Time will gradually speed up, and as you actually hit the event horizon of the black hole, time would become almost infinitely fast; you'd see the galaxy behind you rapidly age, erupt in to supernovas, and then fade away in to nothingness. To you, this would just be a few seconds, but to the rest of the galaxy/universe, it will be billions of years.

Finally, you enter the black hole. At this point, the idea of "looking behind you" ceases to have any meaning. The space that you think of as "behind you" has become so warped by gravity that it also points... in to the black hole. In fact, every direction you look is towards the black hole. Every direction you move is towards the black hole. If you could look "outside," you'd see time speeding by at an infinite rate, and from your perspective, the next thing you know is the end of the universe.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
Slavik81 said:
It's not like it matters. Time passing slowly isn't like Max Payne. It feels normal because your thoughts are slow too.

It's also relative. You could alternatively say that as you fall into a black hole, the rest of the universe speeds up. Neither perspective is more correct. It just depends on your point of view.
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Never played Max Payne.

But, either way, still not something I'd want to happen just because "Well, I'm 90 years old, so I'm going to die soon anyway"
 
C

Culex

Banned
Opiate said:
As you approach a black hole (before the event horizon), both time and space will gradually become increasingly distorted. In regards to space, what you would see is that, as you approached the black hole, it would gradually take up an increasingly large portion of your field of view. That's true of everything, in a small way; even a nickel looks larger as you approach it. But imagine this effect is magnified hugely by the dense gravity; the black hole isn't just "larger," but gradually all encompassing. If you were to turn around to look behind you, the rest of the universe would gradually become a tinier portion of your vision, until eventually (as you hit the event horizon), everything besides the black hole is just one tiny speck directly behind you. The black hole is everywhere else -- up, down, left, right, in front of you. This is space warping around and folding in on itself.

Time would also become warped; specifically, it would slow down. From your perspective, though, you don't slow down -- time for any individual person always seems to go the same speed -- so instead, you see everything else speed up. As you approach the black hole, let's imagine you're still looking behind you, back towards the rest of the universe. Time will gradually speed up, and as you actually hit the event horizon of the black hole, time would become almost infinitely fast; you'd see the galaxy behind you rapidly age, erupt in to supernovas, and then fade away in to nothingness. To you, this would just be a few seconds, but to the rest of the galaxy/universe, it will be billions of years.

Finally, you enter the black hole. At this point, the idea of "looking behind you" ceases to have any meaning. The space that you think of as "behind you" has become so warped by gravity that it also points... in to the black hole. In fact, every direction you look is towards the black hole. Every direction you move is towards the black hole. If you could look "outside," you'd see time speeding by at an infinite rate, and from your perspective, the next thing you know is the end of the universe.
Click to expand...

All in theory of course! The "spaghetti effect" would destroy the matter of your body, so no one could ever live to see in person the event horizon.
 
A

Aurongel

Member
Opiate said:
As you approach a black hole (before the event horizon), both time and space will gradually become increasingly distorted. In regards to space, what you would see is that, as you approached the black hole, it would gradually take up an increasingly large portion of your field of view. That's true of everything, in a small way; even a nickel looks larger as you approach it. But imagine this effect is magnified hugely by the dense gravity; the black hole isn't just "larger," but gradually all encompassing. If you were to turn around to look behind you, the rest of the universe would gradually become a tinier portion of your vision, until eventually (as you hit the event horizon), everything besides the black hole is just one tiny speck directly behind you. The black hole is everywhere else -- up, down, left, right, in front of you. This is space warping around and folding in on itself.

Time would also become warped; specifically, it would slow down. From your perspective, though, you don't slow down -- time for any individual person always seems to go the same speed -- so instead, you see everything else speed up. As you approach the black hole, let's imagine you're still looking behind you, back towards the rest of the universe. Time will gradually speed up, and as you actually hit the event horizon of the black hole, time would become almost infinitely fast; you'd see the galaxy behind you rapidly age, erupt in to supernovas, and then fade away in to nothingness. To you, this would just be a few seconds, but to the rest of the galaxy/universe, it will be billions of years.

Finally, you enter the black hole. At this point, the idea of "looking behind you" ceases to have any meaning. The space that you think of as "behind you" has become so warped by gravity that it also points... in to the black hole. In fact, every direction you look is towards the black hole. Every direction you move is towards the black hole. If you could look "outside," you'd see time speeding by at an infinite rate, and from your perspective, the next thing you know is the end of the universe.
Click to expand...

So then is the "true" center of a black hole just composed of single dimensional space?

i.e. A single dimension composed of just a single point in space/time? Not time, no space, no direction?
 
C

Culex

Banned
Aurongel said:
So then is the "true" center of a black hole just composed of single dimensional space?

i.e. A single dimension composed of just a single point in space/time? Not time, no space, no direction?
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You are referring to the singularity. Way above my rudimentary understanding!
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Aurongel said:
So then is the "true" center of a black hole just composed of single dimensional space?

i.e. A single dimension composed of just a single point in space/time? Not time, no space, no direction?
Click to expand...

...maybe. The center of a black hole is one of the least understood things in physics at the moment.
 
Z

Ziltoidia 9

Member
I freaking love space. Someone earlier posed why more people don't follow it....I think unfortunately because people follow something else that "explains" things...


If you think it up, somewhere in the universe, it probably exsists. Like a year ago I remember here about a star that is the size of the diameter of Jupiter's orbit.
 
P

pulsemyne

Member
hoverboarder said:
The real question, if it's that big is HOW DID WE MISS IT? :p
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"Well the thing about a black hole is it's main distinguishing feature is it's Black. And the think about space, the colour of space, the basic space colour is it's black. So how are you supposed to see them?"
"But five of them? How can you be ambushed by five black holes?"
"Its always the way isn't it. We've in deep space for 3 million years and there hasn't been one. Then all of a sudden five turn up at once!"
Nice Red Dwarf quote for you there.
 
D

Dylan Sexbang

Banned
Space, the length of time it takes for things to happen in space, the absolute vastness of it, and things like this black hole make the ~80 years I'll live feel so insignificant and pointless in the grand scheme of things. We have this black hole infinitely more mass than me or all of Earth or the entire solar system. And I'm just me. Fuck you space. You keep me up at night.
 
1

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
hoverboarder said:
The real question, if it's that big is HOW DID WE MISS IT? :p
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Few reasons.
1. It existed in another time, like 12.8 billion years ago. The information we gathered now is that old. So its safe to say that this black hole doesn't exist anymore.
2. We can't actually see black holes, what we see is radiation emitted from stuff falling into the black hole. As soon as something crosses the event horizon light can't escape anymore so we don't see shit. Its also in the middle of a galaxy 420 trillon times as bright as our sun, which is pretty fucking bright.
3. Its fucking far away, to be precise: 12.8 billion lightyears.
 
A

AlimNassor

Banned
of course you would never get anywhere near a black hole before you're killed by the radiation.

Kyouko la Kill said:
Space, the length of time it takes for things to happen in space, the absolute vastness of it, and things like this black hole make the ~80 years I'll live feel so insignificant and pointless in the grand scheme of things. We have this black hole infinitely more mass than me or all of Earth or the entire solar system. And I'm just me. Fuck you space. You keep me up at night.
Click to expand...

Humans are infinitely more important.
 
D

Dr Zhivago

Member
1.21Gigawatts said:
Few reasons.
1. It existed in another time, like 12.8 billion years ago. The information we gathered now is that old. So its safe to say that this black hole doesn't exist anymore.
Click to expand...

Nope, it's still out there. Black holes evaporate thanks to Hawking radiation, but incredibly slowly. It'll still be there long after all the stars have gone out.
 
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