A simulated Black Hole with the Milky Way in the background
Posted on 12/09/2008 2:22:35 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A simulated Black Hole with the Milky Way in the background
There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.
German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
The black hole is four million times heavier than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.
Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.
According to Dr Robert Massy, of the Royal Astronomical Society, the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.
'The black pearl'
Dr Massy said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Big deal. We have a black hole right here in America named Obama.
Bush’s fault!
Its Oprah’s Butt
I once found a rat turd in my Snickers.
Confirmation is always welcome, but this has been long suspected.
Oh, yeah:
RACIST!
:)
That looks like Barry’s campaign icon.
I thought this was confirmed years ago. Maybe just an generally accepted theory?
I thought they’d find the black hole in Uranus.
God willing, his legal relationship with the governor of Illinois will be his undoing. Biden is too stupid to be of concern and is too arrogant to be handled by the anti-American eminence grice handlers of the new fuhrer.
Let's hope and pray for deliverance.
Black hole star mystery 'solved'
***************************************EXCERPT****************************
The researchers modelled how molecular clouds are sucked into black holes
Astronomers have shed light on how stars can form around a massive black hole, defying conventional wisdom.
Scientists have long wondered how stars develop in such extreme conditions.
Molecular clouds - the normal birth places of stars - would be ripped apart by the immense gravity, a team explains in Science magazine.
But the researchers say stars can form from elliptical discs - the relics of giant gas clouds torn apart by encounters with black holes.
They made the discovery after developing computer simulations of giant gas clouds being sucked into black holes like water spiralling down a plughole.
"These simulations show that young stars can form in the neighbourhood of supermassive black holes as long as there is a reasonable supply of massive clouds of gas from further out in the galaxy," said co-author Ian Bonnell from St Andrews University, UK.
Ripped apart
Their findings are in accordance with actual observations in our Milky Way galaxy that indicate the presence of a massive black hole, surrounded by huge stars with eccentric orbits.
The simulations, performed on a supercomputer - and taking over a year of computing time - followed the evolution of two separate giant gas clouds up to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, as they fell towards the supermassive black hole.
That's a bit dramatic but cathartic none the less
Why do black holes always look like they’re mad at something?
(And I've seen Ed Wood movies!)
It’s called Congress.
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