Posted on 01/10/2011 5:57:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US astronomers have discovered a huge black hole, a million times the mass of the sun, in a nearby galaxy -- a finding that could help better understand the origins of the universe.
The announcement Monday by the American Astronomical Society said the surprise discovery in a so-called "dwarf" galaxy offers evidence that black holes -- regions of space where not even light can escape -- formed before the buildup of galaxies.
"This galaxy gives us important clues about a very early phase of galaxy evolution that has not been observed before," said Amy Reines, a researcher at the University of Virginia who presented the findings to the AAS annual meeting.
The galaxy, called Henize 2-10, is 30 million light-years from Earth, has been studied for years, and is forming stars very rapidly. It resembles what scientists think were some of the first galaxies to form in the early universe.
Reines along with Gregory Sivakoff and Kelsey Johnson of the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Crystal Brogan of the NRAO, observed Henize 2-10 with the National Science Foundation?s Very Large Array radio telescope and with the Hubble Space Telescope.
They found a region near the center of the galaxy that strongly emits radio waves with characteristics of those emitted by super-fast "jets" of material spewed outward from areas close to a black hole.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This undated NASA image shows the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10, seen in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope. The central, light pink region shows an area of radio emission, seen with the Very Large Array. The area indicates the presence of a supermassive black hole drawing in material from its surroundings. (AFP/NASA)
The NAACP would call this post racist.
Fascinating stuff. This entire black hole business is difficult to get you mind around...something so dense that it creates gravity that even light cannot escape from.
I was reading somewhere recently that several astronomers have evidence of certain black holes devouring whole planets by the beam of energy it creates and spews out millions of light years. The distances involved...
Don’t worry...Barry’ll plug the damn hole...
If it takes light 30 million years to travel from there to earth, and light travels 186,000 miles per SECOND, that is unimaginable distance! When did God create earth again?
... at least that is where it WAS, 30 million years ago!
Black holes are division by zero in a mathematical, gravitational model. Nothing more. Don't make the common mistake of assuming that the model defines reality, which is what is happening wrt 'black holes'.
The universe is filled with plasma (charged particles) which generate magnetic fields when they move in an electric current. The effects interpreted as being caused by a 'black hole' are the result of a 'gravity-only' model of the universe being imposed on common electrical effects observed on a galactic scale.
Properly recognizing the effects as electrical rather than gravitational in nature means that 'black holes' are just as invisible as 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' and will always remain so.
Obviously you have to assume that c has never been anything other than 186,000 miles per SECOND over time frames that are also assumed. GR only requires that c be uniform throughout the universe at any particular time, not that c is unchanged over time.
"When did God create earth again?"
About 6,000 years ago.
“US astronomers have discovered a huge black hole, a million times the mass of the sun, IN A NEARBY GALAXY — a finding that could help better understand the origins of the universe.”
I understand the closer something is the easier it may be to study it, but, how far do we want to go being happy about closeness when it comes to these things?
LLS
I wouldn't want to be any closer than the one in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The argument of ‘creation with the appearance of age’ is fallacious and tacit agreement that the ‘age’ is empirical and not assumed. ‘Long ages’ are not empirical and are assumed, therefore no argument of ‘creation with the appearance of age’ is necessary.
Using that argument gives the impression that creationists must engage in logical fallacy as argument against empirical evidence when the assumption of ‘long ages’ is fallacious in itself.
Mass is mass, regardless of density, so I'd worry less about V4641 Sagittarii than one of our nearer stellar neighbors shuffling off their mortal coil in the energetic way some are given to doing so.
I don’t think terms like “nearby” should apply to other galaxies. Nothing is nearby, even if it is the next galaxy over.
I know what you mean, but the energies involved in some of these relativistic jets, and their highly directional structure, makes the concept of "far away" a little less comforting, even when we're talking in terms of other galaxies.
There have been some high-energy events noted by satellites, some very far from earth, that are awesome in the power levels they imply. Instruments overwhelmed to the point of inducing temporary shut-down for self protection, from events hundreds of thousands of light-years away. These events are "gamma ray bursts," thought to be from collapsing stars, but a beam eminating from a supermassive black hole would be much worse.
If one of these jets should turn our way, even from thousands of light-years away, there could be real effects for life on earth. Not likely, of course. But not impossible.
It’s a Black hole, not a Black Ho.
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