Astronomers find star-less galaxy

[OSHA]

Actual photo..

[bill1952]

They can find an invisible galaxy (right!) with no stars, but they can't make a zero calorie cheesecake?

Geez.

[Cold Heat]

it will have no relation to "matter" as we know it.

That appears to be the case exactly.IMO

[SengirV]

Really not likely. Just because something is a black hole doesn't give it the ability to reach out and grab stuff from VERY far away. It's just that a black hole is a super dense source of gravity. If our sun turned into a black hole(other than the obvious lack of energy we get from the sun), nothing would change for us, it's just that the volume of the sun would decrease as all the matter got collapsed into a smaller volume. The Earth would still orbit our "black hole sun" as before. The size of a black hole that would "eat" an entire galaxy, like what you suppose, would be enormous. The best estimate is that the black hole at the center of our galaxy has the mass of 2-3 million suns(astronomers use our's as the messuring block). And we are no in danger of getting sucked into the center of our galaxy.

[SengirV]

Wouldn't that be the negative?

[Dr. Thorne]

Gawrsh! Ain't that purty!! </Goofy lingo>

[LibWhacker]

I don't understand what's involved, that's for sure! The article says they studied the distribution of hydrogen atoms . . . So my guess is they've seen a giant swirling cloud of hydrogen atoms, but no stars, and not enough hydrogen mass to hold it all together, and so spread out and gigantic it can't be a black hole. Total guess.

[OSHA]

Affirmative.

[LibWhacker]

LOL!

[Cold Heat]

My thinking is that it had much to do with our lack of knowledge regarding gravitational forces, and how they propagate, relate and affect other stellar bodies.

Are they instantaneous, or does it have characteristics of speed as does light.

So, they came up with a temporary answer to the question and blame it on dark stuff.

If we ever figure this out, it will be the beginning of the possibility of interstellar travel that totally blows all conventional thinking out of the water.

Just my opinion mind you.

[mcg1969]

I don't know why they claim that this galaxy is "invisible". A thin, bright ellipse is clearly visible in this picture.

[bill1952]

Oh heck, now I have to start thinking again. 8^)

Has it yet been proved that there is a black hole there, or is it still assumed?

What would be the schwartzfeld radius of that puppy?

[tfecw]

well i got the impression that dark matter is what it says...matter that can't be detected from the light it emits (or fails to emit)

there are all sorts of theories involved mostly with the creation of the universe and where all the matter that should be in the universe but we can't seem to find. The rocket scientist think they are "missing" about 85-95 percent of the matter that should be in the universe. Dark matter is one idea they come up with to explain it. "It's there, we just can't see it"

[Liberal Classic]

A burnt out galaxy? It's emitting light, just not at visible wavelengths.

[fish hawk]

must be a "black whole"

[DannyTN]

"What the heck is dark matter?"

African matter.

[Yo-Yo]

Gee, I wish that picture of nothing were a bit clearer...

[chronotrigger]

Scientists believe that dark matter is, in many ways, like ordinary matter (everything you can see and touch and everything that has gravity-cars, people, cats, etc.) except that it does not emit light. That makes it incredibly hard to detect.

Scientists believe that there should be a certain amount of matter in the universe to account for some of the things they see- rate of expansion of the universe, past and present. So far, they have not been able to find enough ordinary matter to account for some things in the universe. They believe that something they call "dark" matter accounts for the rest-but haven't been able to verify that because dark matter does not emit light, therefore it is incredibly hard to detect.

[Captain Beyond]

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