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Milky Way's monster black hole awoke 300 years ago
AFP on Yahoo ^
| 4/15/08
| AFP
Posted on 04/15/2008 12:33:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
click here to read article
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To: NormsRevenge
Wouldn’t that really be 26,300 years ago?
21
posted on
04/15/2008 12:57:23 PM PDT
by
TheThirdRuffian
(McCain is the best candidate of the Democrat party.)
To: TheThirdRuffian
Man, I was late to the party.
22
posted on
04/15/2008 12:58:14 PM PDT
by
TheThirdRuffian
(McCain is the best candidate of the Democrat party.)
To: NormsRevenge; Charles Henrickson; martin_fierro
The "temporary feeding frenzy" caused X-ray energy to leap from its mouth in a giant flare Further evidence leading to their decision:
23
posted on
04/15/2008 12:58:41 PM PDT
by
mikrofon
(X-rayted Expulsion)
To: NormsRevenge
24
posted on
04/15/2008 12:58:43 PM PDT
by
Captain Beyond
(The Hammer of the gods! (Just a cool line from a Led Zep song))
To: Red Badger
I guess the part about going on a “feedling frenzy” made me think of Michael Moore.
25
posted on
04/15/2008 12:58:56 PM PDT
by
Choose Ye This Day
(Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. (Psalms 82:6))
To: Choose Ye This Day
oops.
FEEDING frenzy, not “feedling”
26
posted on
04/15/2008 12:59:31 PM PDT
by
Choose Ye This Day
(Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. (Psalms 82:6))
To: NormsRevenge
I’ll blame the journo for this blooper: It is impossible to determine what took place 300 years ago on an object that is 26,000 light years away.
27
posted on
04/15/2008 1:00:27 PM PDT
by
Squawk 8888
(TSA and DHS are jobs programs for people who are not smart enough to flip burgers)
To: TheThirdRuffian
Yes. It happened roughly 26,300 years ago. 300 years ago we might have been able to see it “happen” (i.e. light from the actual event finally reaches us). Now looking at it we see evidence of an event 300 years old that took 26,000 years to reach us.
To: RatRipper
The black hole awoke about 26,000 +- {error in distance to black hole} - 2 (150 +- {error in distance from black hole to gas cloud on other side}). Assuming the 26000 and 150 are good numbers.
It can't be quite that simple or the gas cloud would be behind the black hole.
The X-rays from the 'feeding frenzy' are long gone. Humans were too busy killing each other to notice. If we had we might be able to use this pulse as a fine calibration tool on distances at the galactic center. We still can, it will just take many years and additional gas clouds lighting up.
In any case I'm inclined to give the journalist a pass on this one. If the journalist had actually understood he or she would have been unable to convey it to the public without resorting to some lame metaphor (cosmic echo) that would only serve to get the mouth breathers to think they understand.
They should include a diagram. Language is a really blunt instrument.
29
posted on
04/15/2008 1:05:30 PM PDT
by
Dinsdale
To: NonValueAdded
Hehe! I think they need a new science editor.
30
posted on
04/15/2008 1:12:57 PM PDT
by
TheDon
To: Little Pig
Mmmmmmmmm.... mammoth steaks...
31
posted on
04/15/2008 1:18:02 PM PDT
by
Mr. K
(Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
To: Dinsdale
Karl Schwarzschild could have supplied an equation to explain it.
32
posted on
04/15/2008 1:19:47 PM PDT
by
Westlander
(Unleash the Neutron Bomb)
To: NormsRevenge
The phenomenon is due to X-ray pulses that are believed to be residual bursts from a flare that happened 300 years ago. A flare affecting something 26,000 light years away?
WOW! News travels fast.
33
posted on
04/15/2008 1:31:36 PM PDT
by
AndyTheBear
(Disastrous social experimentation is the opiate of elitist snobs.)
To: Squawk 8888
Ill blame the journo for this blooper: It is impossible to determine what took place 300 years ago on an object that is 26,000 light years away.Impossible?
Maybe this was a very resourceful reporter who knew some trade secrets about how to get the scoop first ;-)
34
posted on
04/15/2008 1:35:48 PM PDT
by
AndyTheBear
(Disastrous social experimentation is the opiate of elitist snobs.)
To: Little Pig
Yet another example of a journalist reporting on something way outside their depth.I notice they also had to tell us there was an exploding star, called a supernova. Everyone I know, and pretty much everyone who is going to bother reading this article, already knows what a supernova is. Except the guy who wrote the article, I guess.
35
posted on
04/15/2008 1:47:52 PM PDT
by
webheart
To: NormsRevenge
Carl Sagan was only half right. We need to be a two universe species not a two planet species.
36
posted on
04/15/2008 2:06:32 PM PDT
by
Carl from Marietta
(Go see Ben Stein's new movie, Do it now!!!!)
To: NormsRevenge
What is the chance that clouds of gas exist between us and the supernova, with a 300-light-year added path difference compared to straight line-of-sight with the supernova? As seen by us, those clouds would be lighting up right now in the reflected light of the supernova, which may be detectable. If the clouds were large, we should see a spherical shell of illumination traversing them (at the speed of light). Parts would light up or disappear as the supernova’s light hit new patches, or traversed beyond the spatial extent of patches previously illuminated.
37
posted on
04/15/2008 3:16:28 PM PDT
by
coloradan
(The US is becoming a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
To: ClearCase_guy
Remind me in 26,699 years.
39
posted on
04/17/2008 11:27:58 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
To: 75thOVI; AFPhys; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; BenLurkin; ...
40
posted on
04/17/2008 11:28:30 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
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