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50 Billion Suns! -The Biggest Single Object in the Universe -A Galaxy Insight
Daily Galaxy ^ | March 9th, 2009

Posted on 03/10/2009 3:45:41 PM PDT by TaraP

Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe. New results have placed an upper limit on the current size of black holes - and at fifty billion suns it's pretty damn big. That's a hundred thousand tredagrams, and you'll never get the chance to use that word in relation to anything else.

Black holes are regions of space where matter is so dense that regular physics just breaks down. You might think physical laws are immutable - you can't get out of gravitational attraction the same way you can get out of a speeding ticket - but beyond a certain level laws which determine how matter is regulated are simply overloaded and material is crushed down into something that's less an object and more a region of altered space.

While there's theoretically no upper limit on how big a black hole can be, there are hard limits on how big they could have become by now. The universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, and even the most voracious black hole can only suck in matter at a certain rate. The bigger the black hole, the bigger the gravitational field and the faster it can pull in matter - but that same huge gravitational gradient means that the same matter can release huge amounts of radiation as it falls, blasting other matter further away.

Based on this self-regulating maximum rate, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, and the European Southern Observatory, Chile, have calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big" and triple the size of the largest observed black hole, OJ 287.

There are potential problems with this calculation. Based as it is on the radiation outflow from a black hole, new discoveries could change this estimate - though only from "insanely massive" to "ridiculously ginormous."


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism
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To: cripplecreek

A mass of 50.000.000.000 is still just chump change when you compare it with the number of stars in the visible Universe. 10-22 stars or 100,000,000,000 times 100,000,000,000. If our Universe is a member of a “multiverse” then the number of universes and stars becomes numberless. If that be the case then there are numberless copies of me and you typing away at FR. I am not sure I buy into the Multiverse model though.


21 posted on 03/10/2009 4:04:42 PM PDT by jesseam (Been there and done that!)
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To: TaraP
Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe.

Does this event horizon make me look fat?

22 posted on 03/10/2009 4:05:59 PM PDT by 6SJ7 (Atlas Shrugged Mode: ON)
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To: Ancient Drive
3 categories for the most massive black holes ever:

“ridiculously stupidly big”

“insanely massive”

“ridiculously ginormous.”

What about: Obama budget big

23 posted on 03/10/2009 4:07:35 PM PDT by Poison Pill (Help, I've voted Republican and I can't get up!)
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To: TaraP
tredagram

I once got a tredagram from a friend in Japan. It said: Rost waddet. Prease send money.

24 posted on 03/10/2009 4:08:35 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Ancient Drive

You can also move it in the other direction. Compared to a subatomic particle, we are larger than the universe. ;)


25 posted on 03/10/2009 4:08:44 PM PDT by Soothesayer (The United States of America Rest in Peace November 4 2008)
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To: jesseam

Well there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the known universe and something with half the mass of our galaxy is almost atomic in that scale.


26 posted on 03/10/2009 4:10:07 PM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: Ancient Drive
calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big"

I like descriptions like that, for the non-scientist 1040kg means absolutely nothing ... but Ridiculously Stupidly Big puts it all into perspective :)

/grin

27 posted on 03/10/2009 4:11:36 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
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To: TaraP

I’ve seen bigger.


28 posted on 03/10/2009 4:13:22 PM PDT by avg_freeper (Gunga galunga. Gunga, gunga galunga)
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To: TaraP

There’s a difference between size and mass. What they mean is it has (supposedly) 50 billion times the mass of our Sun. Black holes are comparatively small objects on the galactic scale. At the heart of a black hole is an infinitely dense entity called a singularity. The amount of mass contained within the singularity determines the size of the black hole’s “event horizon”, the spherical region surrounding the singularity where you would need to exceed light speed in order to escape the immense gravitational field of the object. Some BH event horizons are small, others larger than our solar system. It all depends on the amount of mass contained within the given singularity.


29 posted on 03/10/2009 4:14:20 PM PDT by ETL (ALL the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Mr_Moonlight

E = MC2 WHOH!!!


30 posted on 03/10/2009 4:17:37 PM PDT by Mr_Moonlight
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To: TaraP

One has only to gaze into the far reaches of the WH to see an example of one hundred thousand tredagrams.


31 posted on 03/10/2009 4:20:03 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: 6SJ7

“Does this event horizon make me look fat? “

Don’t worry! Spaghettification will soon slim you down! Way down!


32 posted on 03/10/2009 4:20:03 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: TaraP
and triple the size of the largest observed black hole

That caught my eye ... largest possible isn't even an order of magnitude bigger than the largest "observed." This sort of object defies human comprehension.

33 posted on 03/10/2009 4:20:06 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Pablo64
"So they're basically saying it's "larger than a bread box""

Actually, wouldn't it be smaller than a bread box??? A singularity??

34 posted on 03/10/2009 4:21:24 PM PDT by rednesss (fascism is the union,marriage,merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power)
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To: TaraP
"ridiculously ginormous."

I hate when they sling all that technical jargon around.

35 posted on 03/10/2009 4:25:22 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage...)
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To: TaraP

Heck, that’s nothing. By the time Obama is done with our economy, our deficit will be that big. /sarc


36 posted on 03/10/2009 4:29:21 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: GodGunsGuts

How does this fit into your belief the universe is less than 10,000 years old?


37 posted on 03/10/2009 4:29:48 PM PDT by DevNet (What's past is prologue)
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To: DevNet

Home from day care early today?


38 posted on 03/10/2009 4:31:22 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (The beginning of the O'Bummer administration looks a lot like the end of the Nixon administration)
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To: Pablo64
The magnitude and splendor of God's universe is truly incredible.

Indeed. But I wonder...does He hold dominion over all of the other millions of possible universes as well?

Surely, beyond the edge of this universe there is nothingness. How far would you have to travel to encounter another universe? And how many others are there?
If there is a limit to the void beyond the edge of our universe, where does it end and what is beyond that?

Just some stuff I wonder about from time to time.

39 posted on 03/10/2009 4:32:54 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage...)
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To: editor-surveyor

I am still waiting for you to provide proof that cancer did not exists before the industrial revolution.

Do you think you will have an answer soon?


40 posted on 03/10/2009 4:34:34 PM PDT by DevNet (What's past is prologue)
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