A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known (M87 - HUGHer by 2 or 3 times than speculated)

Space.com ^ | 6/8/09 | Andrea Thompson

[NormsRevenge]

PASADENA, CALIF. — The most massive black hole yet weighed lurks at the heart of the relatively nearby giant galaxy M87.

The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun. The new measure suggests that other black holes in nearby large galaxies could also be much heftier than current measurements suggest, and it could help astronomers solve a longstanding puzzle about galaxy development.

"We did not expect it at all," said team member Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas at Austin.

The discovery was announced here today at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Game changer

The finding "is important for how black holes relate to galaxies," said team member Jens Thomas of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. "If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy."

[NormsRevenge]

This composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data reveals the giant elliptical galaxy M87. Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/W. Forman et al./NRAO/AUI/NSF/W. Cotton;/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler

[NormsRevenge]

Back to the ship. Later.

[Shaun_MD]

Nice!

[bmwcyle]

Now we must figure how to get them to eat liberals.

[TexasCajun]

...a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun

Somehow I don't think those inside The Beltway would be impressed.

[ETL]

"The supermassive black hole is two to three times heftier than previously thought, a new model showed, weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun."

For comparison, the black hole believed to be at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to be about 3 million times as massive as the Sun.

[ETL]

Now we must figure how to get them to eat liberals.

Might be hard since liberals don't have any "substance" (mass).

[PugetSoundSoldier]

This is Hugh and Series! I'm cereal, I'm super cereal! In fact, this may indicate that ManBearPig is bigger than we suspected, too!

ManBearPig: half man, half bear, half pig - all terror!

[Darksheare]

Bump the “m” off that last word and you have what they have ALOT of.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Guess I’m not going to be moving to M87 anytime soon.

[CaptRon]

"HUGHER"?

I'm hoping this is one of the old FR jokes.

[Billthedrill]

This could be series. BTT.

[ejonesie22]

They may have no substance but they do have plenty of mass...

[ETL]

Lol! Good point!

Thanks (i think). Yuck! :)

[MHGinTN]

"If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy." Ya think? ... Ya mean a ten inch drain will suck out pool water faster than a four inch drain?

[6SJ7]

...weighing in at a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun.

"Does this singularity make me look fat?"

[o2bfree]

[dayglored]

>> ...a whopping 6.4 billion times the mass of the sun0

> Somehow I don't think those inside The Beltway would be impressed.

You're right... 6.4 billion is nothing. Now, maybe 64 billion, maybe.... 640 billion, good chance.

But you really have to get into the TRILLIONS before those Washington b@$t@rd$ start to pay attention...

[Darksheare]

“A Real Whopper”

I’ll have onion rings with that?

[abb]

[ETL]

Re: "If you change the mass of the black hole, you change how the black hole relates to the galaxy."

Ya think? ... Ya mean a ten inch drain will suck out pool water faster than a four inch drain?

If you increase the mass inside a black hole, the 'event horizon' (the distance from the BH center in which objects must exceed the speed of light in order to escape the BH's gravitational field) grows to a larger diameter. The 'singularity' at the BH's center, being an infinitely small region of infinitely concentrated mass, stays the same size, at least as I understand it.

[ejonesie22]

Let us not forget Nadler...

[ejonesie22]

I can see M87 moving closer even as we speak. 6.4 billion time the sun was just not enough...

[ETL]

In other words, I think you’re right.

[garyhope]

Oh, I thought that they were talking about Obammy or his lovely, warm and friendly wife, Michelle, The Belle from Hell.

Or maybe Obammy’s budget and big “stimulus” plan. Isn’t that a big black hole?

Wait, according to John Wiley Price, an absolutely brilliant councilman from Dallas, a “black hole” is racist! And he ought to know.

[MHGinTN]

Next time I’ll make a crack about increasing the slope of a ramp and losing traction faster.

[Redcitizen]

“Does this singularity make me look fat?”

Ha! You win the best comment of the day prize!

[MHGinTN]

Poor Jerry, lost a couple hundred pounds I hear ... can’t try out now for that Jabba role in the next Star Wars movie.

[ETL]

Next time I’ll make a crack about increasing the slope of a ramp and losing traction faster.

Sounds like you're now describing Obama's Marxist economic 'Change' agenda. He says he wants to 'accelerate' it!

[SunkenCiv]

It takes two hands...

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[SunkenCiv]

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic ·

Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[SunkenCiv]

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[HighlyOpinionated]

Who is always "seeing things" in photos?

I see a girl on her knees praying (upper left) and her prayers going into the light which then sends light down to the man-looking creature which is being destroyed.
??

[Fred Nerks]

Catastrophe = Black hole sucks.

Black Hole Recycles = X Planets.

[Lonely Bull]

Now we must figure how to get them to eat liberals.

What did black holes ever do to you?

[Steve Van Doorn]

I read it is 10X the mass of the Milky Way.

[Steve Van Doorn]

is that what she looks like now or is that fake?

[Steve Van Doorn]

Black Hole Recycles = Planet X - Moonbabies (2002), Quantum (2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoonBabies

wasn't sure what you were talkin about Planet X?
Or are you talking about a brown dwarf?

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/extrasolar/

X PLANETS = EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS.

[Fred Nerks]

in chrono order, the topics currently filed under the XPLANETS keyword:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1646385/posts

[brytlea]

I highly suggest an exercise program and maybe a low carb diet!

[Yosemitest]