NASA telescope sees black hole gulping remote star

Reuters ^ | Tue Dec 5, 7:18 PM ET | By Will Dunham

[Redcitizen]

The image probably looks like a cloudy glass of water or something. Highly unispiring and nothing to look at. So, a little bit of advertising to get our hopes up.

[Hatteras]

Did the perp look anything like this?...

[JerseyJohn61]

No, your explanation is right Pox.

Super novae(1a, or some such designation) are
believed to have a consistent brightness value
and can be used as a reliable yardstick....JJ61

[Redcitizen]

What is that?

[Pox]

Actually, the way I understand it, the matter is simply added to the 'soup' inside the event horizon (the point at which nothing, not even light, can escape the gravitational pull of the black hole).

The wormhole speculation is theoretical and likely not actually viable. Black Holes don't eat in one end and expel from the other, but in a way, they do dissipate according to Stephen Hawking (see: Hawking radiation) over probably trillions of years.

They could be considered the ultimate garbage disposal.

[Pox]

ROTFLMAO.

That's my favorite Trek episode. :)

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

I recognize it as from an old Star Trek episode. It was way bigger than the Enterprise and tried to eat it, IIRC.

[Nathan Zachary]

Sure they did. Whenever I hear "scientists say", 99.9% of the time it turns out to be B.S. It's just a "give us more taxpayers money so we can spend our lives slurping at the public trough" carrot the dangle to keep the cash flowing.

A black hole wouldn't be seen gulping a star, the light wouldn't be able to escape the gravity, so the (B.S.) theory goes. More likely, it was just a star that burned out a billion years ago (so the B.S. theory goes) and the light finally stopped reaching earth.

Her's a much better theory- there is a speck of dust on the lens.

[RightWhale]

You know, there is already plenty of evidence of water on Mars, most of it subsurface and much of it as ice. This one could be a hot water spring. If they are waiting for discovery of water, they could have stopped waiting several years ago.

[fish hawk]

A dormant black hole is one that is in between meals.

[Nathan Zachary]

"What the heck is a "dormant" black hole. It either is or isn't a black hole I would think and once it's a black hole it stays a black hole."

It's scientific 'gobbledygook' for "We can't see this unseen imaginary black hole doing anything, so this unseen imaginary thing must be asleep somehow. We need more money to investigate this further, and more chalk to write impressive looking calculus on the blackboard."

[Pox]

You are correct, the light cannot escape the gravity. However, the matter that is circling the Black hole just outside the event horizon is moving at typically millions of miles per hour, and that matter is heated up from such a velocity, and when matter gets that hot, it emits radiation in different varieties, typically x-rays. UV radiation was emitted from the stars matter that was being swallowed just prior to it passing the point of no return, and that 'signature' is the marker we use to detect Black Holes. According to our current knowledge, a Black Hole devouring a star is the only known mechanism to create such a flash of UV radiation.

[#1CTYankee]

Thats my all time favorite episode, "The Doomsday Machine"

Our last child was a girl but had it been a boy we were going to name him Decker.

[Nathan Zachary]

"You know, there is already plenty of evidence of water on Mars, most of it subsurface and much of it as ice."

No there isn't. In fact, there is just as much evidence that a large ice comet hit mars and melted, which caused these dried up riverbeds. Notice they are found in craters and on the edges of craters. It makes more sense than the solid comet hitting mars theory, uncovering ice which then melted.

One theory does not require further funding, the other does. It isn't suprizing which one "scientists" go with.

[#1CTYankee]

"That's my favorite Trek episode. :)"

Mine too, check out my profile page and see what my son's name is.

[Pox]

:)

[badbass]

LOL, where did you find that? I was looking all over google to see if I could find it!

[Political Junkie Too]

I always thought that looked like a flashlight wrapped in foil.

-PJ

[Conan the Librarian]

You are right that you wouldn't see the actual star go in, but, you can see the effects of the gravity on the star BEFORE it goes in. Until the ingoing matter crosses the event horizon, the gravitation effects would be pulling and tugging on the star, stretching it like a strand of spaghetti. Besides that, the gravity would also slow down the light coming from the area, thus shifting the light into the red end of the spectrum.

Then, as the matter from the star does cross the event horizon, the gravity differences from one side of the star, and even one side of individual atoms, rips the star or atom apart, releasing enormous amounts of energy, some of which goes toward the black hole, some of which goes out into the universe.

Black holes aren't like what they show in the movies. If the Sun became a black hole all of a sudden, gravitationally we wouldn't notice, as the gravity wouldn't change. It's not like a giant vacuum cleaner.

[mountn man]

Someone has got to be held accountable for this atrocity. And, by the way, what is the statute of limitations on a crime of this nature?

In other words, Bush's fault!