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• ### Just how massive is the Phoenix Cluster's black hole?

08/22/2016 6:48:37 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 25 replies
imgur.com ^ | 8/22/16
• ### *vanity* Don Lemon is a race baiter

07/13/2016 8:09:02 PM PDT · by Kevin in California · 23 replies
07-13-2016 | Me
Just tuned into CNN which I rarely do and listening to him in his little studio townhall setting brings me to this conclusion. Sorry, JMO on how I see it.
• ### Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 6814: Grand Design Spiral Galaxy from Hubble

06/21/2016 1:24:44 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
NASA ^ | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 | (see photo credit)
Explanation: In the center of this serene stellar swirl is likely a harrowing black-hole beast. The surrounding swirl sweeps around billions of stars which are highlighted by the brightest and bluest. The breadth and beauty of the display give the swirl the designation of a grand design spiral galaxy. The central beast shows evidence that it is a supermassive black hole about 10 million times the mass of our Sun. This ferocious creature devours stars and gas and is surrounded by a spinning moat of hot plasma that emits blasts of X-rays. The central violent activity gives it the designation...
• ### LIGO detects another black hole crash

06/15/2016 12:43:57 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 15 replies
Science Magazine ^ | 6/15/16 | Adrian Cho
On 26 December 2015, LIGO detected gravitational waves from two black holes spiraling together.LIGO/T. Pyle LIGO detects another black hole crash By Adrian ChoJun. 15, 2016 , 1:15 PM The biggest discovery in science this year--the observation of ripples in space-time called gravitational waves--was no fluke. For a second time, physicists working with the two massive detectors in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have detected a pulse of such waves, the LIGO team reported on 15 June at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, California. Once again the waves emanated from the merger of...
• ### Black holes We want information

06/03/2016 5:48:55 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 19 replies
The Economist ^ | 4 Jun, 2014 | From Stephen Hawking
ARE black holes bald or hairy? On that strange and esoteric question may hang the future of the universes past. The present, the past and the future are all connected by physical laws, a phenomenon called causal determinism. With complete information about a systems present, it ought therefore be possible to determine all its past and future states. In theory, that applies to any system, up to and including the entire universe. In 1976, however, an up-and-coming Cambridge-based cosmologist called Stephen Hawking challenged this idea by showing that black holes (which are part of the universe, albeit a rather odd...
• ### Don't judge a black hole by its area

05/07/2016 8:24:24 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
+Plus ^ | Yen Chin Ong
The shape of a Schwarzschild black hole is that of a sphere, and so its area is $A=4\pi r_ h^2$. We might be tempted to use our ordinary intuition about geometry, and deduce that the volume of a Schwarzschild black hole must be $V=4/3 \pi r_ h^3$. This is, however, not necessarily the case. It turns out that the volume of a black hole is not a well-defined notion in general relativity. The reason is that general relativity is a geometric theory of a four-dimensional spacetime, that is, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. In order to...
• ### Where Nature Hides the Darkest Mystery of All

04/28/2016 4:16:35 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 20 replies
Nautilus ^ | 28 Apr, 2016 | Matthew Francis
Theres no boundary quite like a black hole boundary. No known object in existence has as clear a division between inside and outside as a black hole. We live and see the outside, and no probe will bring us information about the inside. We can send radio messages or robotic spacecraft, but once they cross over into a black holes interior, well never get back those emissaries or any information about what happened to them. The boundary of a black hole is its event horizon. Its not a surface in the usual sensetheres no physical barrierbut its very much...
• ### Astrophysicists detect ultra-fast winds near supermassive black hole

03/24/2016 12:44:16 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 22 replies
phys.org ^ | March 21, 2016 | Provided by: York University
Artist's illustration of turbulent winds of gas swirling around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward, but some is being blown away. Credit: NASA, and M. Weiss (Chandra X -ray Center) ============================================================================================================================================== New research led by astrophysicists at York University has revealed the fastest winds ever seen at ultraviolet wavelengths near a supermassive black hole. "We're talking wind speeds of 20 per cent the speed of light, which is more than 200 million kilometres an hour. That's equivalent to a category 77 hurricane," says Jesse Rogerson, who led the research as part of his PhD thesis in...
• ### Are Supermassive Black Holes Hiding Matter?

02/29/2016 10:00:38 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 26 replies
universetoday.com ^ | &#61463; 29 Feb , 2016 | Matt Williams
[S]cientists...for some time now, they have been working with a model that states that the Universe consists of 4.9% normal matter (i.e. that which we can see), 26.8% dark matter (that which we cant), and 68.3% dark energy. From what they have observed, scientists have also concluded that the normal matter in the Universe is concentrated in web-like filaments, which make up about 20% of the Universe by volume. But a recent study performed by the Institute of Astro- and Particle Physics at the University of Innsbruck in Austria has found that a surprising amount of normal matter may live...
• ### ASTRONOMERS JUST SNAPPED PHOTOS OF THE MOST MASSIVE BLACK HOLE WE’VE EVER OBSERVED

02/18/2016 10:44:57 AM PST · by LibWhacker · 53 replies
Digital Trends ^ | 2/17/16 | Chloe Olewitz
A new photograph of galaxy NGC 4889 may look peaceful from such a great distance, but it’s actually home to one of the biggest black holes that astronomers have ever identified. The Hubble Space Telescope allowed scientists to capture photos of the galaxy, located in the Coma Cluster about 300 million light-years away. The supermassive black hole hidden away in NGC 4889 breaks all kinds of records, even though it is currently classified as dormant. So how big is it, exactly? Well, according to our best estimates, the supermassive black hole is roughly 21 billion times the size of the...
• ### Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Two Black Holes Merge

02/12/2016 12:16:11 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 31 replies
NASA ^ | February 12, 2016 | (see photo credit)
Explanation: Just press play to watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time. Set on a cosmic stage the black holes are posed in front of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh...
• ### Galactic center's gamma rays unlikely to originate from dark matter, evidence shows

02/05/2016 1:08:03 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 15 replies
Princeton University ^ | 4 Feb, 2016 | Catherine Zandonella, Office of the Dean for Research
Bursts of gamma rays from the center of our galaxy are not likely to be signals of dark matter but rather other astrophysical phenomena such as fast-rotating stars called millisecond pulsars, according to two new studies, one from a team based at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and another based in the Netherlands. Previous studies suggested that gamma rays coming from the dense region of space in the inner Milky Way galaxy could be caused when invisible dark matter particles collide. But using new statistical analysis methods, the two research teams independently found that the gamma ray...
• ### Dark matter and the dinosaur: New theory challenges notions on origins of human life

12/12/2015 1:32:59 AM PST · by Squawk 8888 · 22 replies
National Post ^ | December 12, 2015 | Joseph Brean
TORONTO — Dark matter inspires many strange theories, but until now few have involved giant lizards and the origins of humanity. If physicist Lisa Randall’s theory is correct, however, there is a clear link between dark matter, the great unknown majority of universal stuff and the extinction of the dinosaurs, which cleared the path for the rise of mammals, including that special species, homo sapiens. Roughly, her idea is that the rotation of a vast disc of dark matter through our solar system dislodged an asteroid from a weak and distant orbit, and sent it hurtling toward Earth, where it...
• ### Milky Ways black hole may be spewing out cosmic rays

03/19/2016 9:24:38 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 20 replies
Science ^ | 16 Mar, 2016 | Daniel Clery
Mysterious high-energy particles known as cosmic rays zip through space at a wide range of energies, some millions of times greater than those produced in the worlds most powerful atom smasher. Scientists have long thought cosmic rays from inside our galaxy come from supernova explosions, but a new study has fingered a second source: the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. With this new result, the search for cosmic ray origins, which has frustrated scientists for more than 100 years, has taken an unexpected new twist. Its very exciting, says astrophysicist Andrew Taylor of the Dublin...
• ### Clocking the Extreme Spin of a Monster Black Hole

03/17/2016 6:36:54 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 22 replies
D-News ^ | 15 Mar, 2016 | IAN O'NEILL
upermassive black holes are the most extreme objects in the known universe, with masses millions or even billions of times the mass of our sun. Now astronomers have been able to study one of these behemoths inside a strange, distant quasar and theyve made an astonishing discovery its spinning one-third the speed of light. Studying a supermassive black hole some 3.5 billion light-years away is no easy feat, but this isnt a regular object: its a quasar that shows quasi-periodic brightening events every 12 years or so a fact that has helped astronomers reveal its extreme nature. Quasars...
• ### Cosmic rays fired at Earth now we know where from

03/17/2016 9:55:45 AM PDT · by LibWhacker · 33 replies
Cosmos ^ | 3/17/16 | Bill Condie
Cosmic rays fired at Earth - now we know where from The violent region at the centre of our galaxy is the prime candidate, after gamma ray analysis, Bill Condie reports. Photo montage of gamma-rays as measured by the HESS array on the night sky over Namibia, with one of the small HESS telescopes in the foreground. Credit: H.E.S.S. Collaboration, Fabio Acero and Henning Gast Astronomers believe they may have identified the source of the stream of cosmic rays that rain down on Earth from outer space. Cosmic rays are extremely high-energy particles such as protons and atomic nuclei....
• ### Astronomers find supermassive black hole in giant galaxy 300 million light years away

02/18/2016 1:21:04 PM PST · by Red Badger · 21 replies
www.foxnews.com ^ | Published February 18, 2016 | Staff
This image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889 (arrowed) in front of hundreds of background galaxies. Well-hidden from human eyes, there is a gigantic supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. (Credit: NASA & ESA) ===================================================================================================================================== Astronomers have found one of the largest-ever black holes in giant galaxy NGC 4889, some 300 million light years away. The Hubble space telescope has captured an incredible image of elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, which is located in the Coma Cluster. Scientists, however, note that the giant galaxy harbors a dark secret. The European Space Agency...
• ### The most luminous galaxy is being torn apart by a black hole

01/18/2016 9:03:18 AM PST · by Citizen Zed · 53 replies
cbs news ^ | 1-18-2016 | BRIAN MASTROIANNI
The galaxy, which is called W2246-0526 and 12.4 billion light years from Earth, is the most luminous in the universe, according to a 2015 NASA study. If all galaxies were the same distance from us, this one would shine the brightest. In new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, this shiniest of galaxies is expelling incredibly turbulent gases, which has never been evidenced in this kind of space body before. "It is like a pot of boiling water being heated up by a nuclear reactor in the center," Tanio Diaz-Santos of the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile, lead...
• ### Black holes can grow to 50 billion times the mass of the Sun... and then stop

12/21/2015 1:15:25 PM PST · by Red Badger · 32 replies
www.ibtimes.co.uk ^ | December 21, 2015 12:30 GMT | By Matt Atherton
Black holes can only grow if they have a gas disc to feed on NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr ======================================================================================================== Black holes can only grow to 50 billion times the mass of the Sun, before they lose their only source of 'food' and stop growing. Scientists discovered that black holes have a size limit, as when it gets so big, the gas which feeds the great void loses its energy, and falls into the unknown. A researcher from the University of Leicester analysed the disc of gas which surrounds supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies. He found that...
• ### The mystery of the naked black hole

01/06/2016 6:59:33 PM PST · by Utilizer · 38 replies
AAAS Science ^ | 5 January 2016 2:45 pm | Daniel Clery
KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA--Most, if not all, galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers surrounded by dense clouds of stars. Now, researchers have found one that seems to have lost almost its entire entourage. The team, which reported its find here today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, says it doesn't know what stripped the stars away. But it has put forward a tantalizing possibility: The object could be an extremely rare medium-sized black hole, which theorists have predicted but observers have never seen. The unusual black hole sits about 1 billion light-years from Earth in SDSS J1126+2944,...
• ### Black hole caught 'burping' galactic gas supply

01/06/2016 2:18:17 PM PST · by Red Badger · 27 replies
BBC ^ | 5 January 2016 | By Jonathan Webb
NASA/CXC/Univ of Texas/E Schlegel et al Image caption The two waves of hot, X-ray emitting gas were seen in this image from Chandra ================================================================================================================ Astronomers have spotted two huge waves of gas being "burped" by the black hole at the heart of a nearby galaxy. The swathes of hot gas, detected in X-ray images from Nasa's Chandra space telescope, appear to be sweeping cooler hydrogen gas ahead of them. This vast, rippling belch is taking place in NGC 5195 - a small, neglected sibling of the "Whirlpool Galaxy", 26 million light years away. That makes it one of the closest...
• ### Physicists figure out how to retrieve information from a black hole

12/23/2015 1:17:47 PM PST · by Red Badger · 51 replies
sciencemag.org ^ | 23 December 2015 3:15 pm | By Adrian Cho
Black holes earn their name because their gravity is so strong not even light can escape from them. Oddly, though, physicists have come up with a bit of theoretical sleight of hand to retrieve a speck of information that's been dropped into a black hole. The calculation touches on one of the biggest mysteries in physics: how all of the information trapped in a black hole leaks out as the black hole "evaporates." Many theorists think that must happen, but they don't know how. Unfortunately for them, the new scheme may do more to underscore the difficulty of the larger...
• ### Black holes have a size limit of 50 billion suns

12/10/2015 8:44:24 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 27 replies
New Scientist ^ | 10 Dec, 2015 | Joshua Sokol,
Even gluttons can't eat forever. When black holes at the hearts of galaxies swell to 50 billion times the mass of our sun, they may lose the discs of gas they use as cosmic feedlots. Most galaxies host a supermassive black hole at their centre. Around this is a region of space where gas settles into an orbiting disc. The gas can lose energy and fall inwards, feeding the black hole. But these discs are known to be unstable and prone to crumbling into stars. Theoretically, a black hole could grow so big that it swallows up the stable part...
• ### NASA Says Indian Scientist's Theory Is Correct, Black Holes Don't Really Exist

11/29/2015 4:24:52 PM PST · by Jyotishi · 49 replies
India Times ^ | November 27, 2015 | Bobins Abraham
American space agency, the NASA had recently observed flares of X-rays from a black hole, which goes against the conventional notion that they are compact particles with such huge gravity that even light can't escape. Last month NASA announced that two of its space telescopes caught a huge burst of X-ray spewing out of a super massive black hole. These flairs appeared to be be triggered by the eruption of a charged particle from the black hole, which according to conventional belief doesn't let anything out. The latest findings are in accordance with the theory of Indian astrophysicist Abhas Mitra...
• ### #Black Holes Matter: First Principle

11/28/2015 8:29:40 AM PST · by NOBO2012 · 16 replies
Michelle Obama's Mirror ^ | 11-28-2015 | MOTUS
As I recall, “scientists” told us for years that black holes existed at the center of galaxies and possessed a gravitational force so strong that nothing – NOTHING - could escape; not even light. Next, they told us that black holes don’t actually exist.Now they tell us that black holes really DO exist, butt that light - along with other stellar, uh, vomit - can escape after all.The NASA fantasists even created a CGI to persuade us that this time they’re correct:That’s as impressive as global warming! And possibly as real.In fact, they claim they have actually witnessed (from 300...
• ### Image: A supermassive black hole in action

11/17/2015 10:55:45 AM PST · by Red Badger · 48 replies
phys.org ^ | November 17, 2015 | Provided by: European Space Agency
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Baum & C. O’Dea (RIT), R. Perley & W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) =============================================================================================================== Scientists often use the combined power of multiple telescopes to reveal the secrets of the Universe – and this image is a prime example of when this technique is strikingly effective. The yellow-hued object at the centre of the frame is an elliptical galaxy known as Hercules A, seen by the Earth-orbiting NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In normal light, an observer would only see this object floating in the inky blackness of space. However, view Hercules A with...
• ### What are white holes?

10/12/2015 8:35:22 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 40 replies
phys.org ^ | October 9, 2015 | by Fraser Cain, Universe Today
White Hole. Credit: universe-review.ca =================================================================================================================== Black holes are created when stars die catastrophically in a supernova. So what in the universe is a white hole? It's imagination day, and we're going to talk about fantasy creatures. Like unicorns, but even rarer. Like leprechauns, but even more fantastical! Today, we're going to talk about white holes. Before we talk about white holes, let's talk about black holes. And before we talk about Black Holes, what's is this thing you have with holes exactly? Black holes are places in the universe where matter and energy are compacted so densely together that their...
• ### Goodbye Big Bang, Hello Black Hole? A New Theory Of The Universes Creation

09/30/2015 7:10:11 PM PDT · by lbryce · 40 replies
Universe Today ^ | September 18, 2015 | ELIZABETH HOWELL on SEPTEMBER 18, 2013
Could the famed Big Bang theory need a revision? A group of theoretical physicists suppose the birth of the universe could have happened after a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole and ejected debris. Before getting into their findings, lets just preface this by saying nobody knows anything for sure. Humans obviously werent around at the time the universe began. The standard theory is that the universe grew from an infinitely dense point or singularity, but who knows what was there before? For all physicists know, dragons could have come flying out of the singularity, stated Niayesh Afshordi, an...
• ### More Evidence for Coming Black Hole Collision (total mass > a billion suns)

09/22/2015 9:34:46 AM PDT · by LibWhacker · 49 replies
NYTimes ^ | 9/16/15 | Dennis Overbye
The apocalypse is still on, apparently at least in a galaxy about 3.5 billion light-years from here. Last winter, a team of Caltech astronomers reported that two supermassive black holes appeared to be spiraling together toward a cataclysmic collision that could bring down the curtains in that galaxy. The evidence was a rhythmic flickering from the galaxys nucleus, a quasar known as PG 1302-102, which Matthew Graham and his colleagues interpreted as the fatal mating dance of a pair of black holes with a total mass of more than a billion suns. Their merger, the astronomers calculated, could release...
• ### Are We Living In A Black Hole?

09/05/2015 2:41:01 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 39 replies
One Universe at a Time ^ | 9/4/15 | Brian Koberlein
Are We Living In A Black Hole? // / Heres an idea, what if the universe and everything we see around us is actually inside a black hole?Whenever Im asked this question, what folks typically have in mind is that the universe began as an infinitely dense point, just like the singularity of a black hole, and because of cosmic expansion theres a limit to how far we can observe, so maybe thats like the event horizon. While its an interesting idea, things arent quite so simple.To begin with, the universe did not begin with an explosion from a...
• ### Monster black hole wakes up after 26 years

06/26/2015 11:15:15 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 33 replies
Phys.Org ^ | 06-26-2015 | Staff & ESA
Artists impression of a black hole feasting on matter from its companion star in a binary system. Material flows from the star towards the black hole and gathers in a disc, where it is heated up, shining brightly at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths before spiralling into the black hole. Part of the disc material does not end up onto the black hole but is ejected the form of two powerful jets of particles. On 15 June 2015, the black-hole binary system V404 Cygni started showing signs of extraordinary activity, something that had not happened since 1989. The system consists...
• ### Two giant black holes might crash into each other in 21 years

05/28/2015 6:23:02 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 57 replies
Geek.com ^ | 5/23/15 | Ryan Whitwam
In the center of most galaxies (ours included) there is a supermassive black hole that holds everything together. However, one galaxy 10.5 billion light years away looks like it might have two black holes, and just like in Highlander, there can be only one. Scientists believe the pair are going to crash into each other in just 21 years. This could provide an unprecedented opportunity to observe the mind-boggling physics of such an event. The galaxy in question doesnt have a snazzy name its known only as PSO J334.2028+01.4075. Its what is known as a quasar, or an active...
• ### What would you see in a black hole?

05/05/2015 8:02:12 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 46 replies
BBC ^ | Marcus Woo
A lone black hole is, unsurprisingly, black. For a more dramatic view, though, zip on over to the Milky Way's centre, the home of a supermassive black hole nearly four million times more massive than the Sun. The black hole's gravity has gathered lots of gas and dust, which has accumulated into a disc that's spiralling into the hole circling the drain, so to speak. As the material gets consumed, friction heats it up to billions of degrees, producing lots of radiation, and outflows of energy and charged particles. The hot disc would be quite a sight. As for...
• ### Mysterious 'supervoid' in space is largest object ever discovered, scientists claim

04/20/2015 1:25:31 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 92 replies
www.telegraph.co.u ^ | 7:09PM BST 20 Apr 2015 | By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
A supervoid has been discovered in the universe which is too big to fit into current models Astronomers have discovered a curious empty section of space which is missing around 10,000 galaxies. The supervoid, which is 1.8 billion light-years across, is the largest known structure ever discovered in the universe but scientists are baffled about what it is and why it is so barren. It sits in a region of space which is much colder than other parts of the universe and although it is not a vacuum, it seems to have around 20 per cent less matter than other...
• ### Black holes don't erase information, scientists say

04/04/2015 10:19:42 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 37 replies
Phys.Org ^ | by Charlotte Hsu
The "information loss paradox" in black holesa problem that has plagued physics for nearly 40 yearsmay not exist. Shred a document, and you can piece it back together. Burn a book, and you could theoretically do the same. But send information into a black hole, and it's lost forever. That's what some physicists have argued for years: That black holes are the ultimate vaults, entities that suck in information and then evaporate without leaving behind any clues as to what they once contained. But new research shows that this perspective may not be correct. "According to our work, information isn't...
• ### New insights found in black hole collisions

03/28/2015 10:39:33 PM PDT · by LibWhacker · 14 replies
Phys.Org ^ | Mar 27, 2015
New insights found in black hole collisions Mar 27, 2015 Enlarge Black Holes Go 'Mano a Mano.' Credit: NASA, Chandra, 10/06/09 New research provides revelations about the most energetic event in the universethe merging of two spinning, orbiting black holes into a much larger black hole. An international team of astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, have found solutions to decades-old equations describing what happens as two spinning black holes in a binary system orbit each other and spiral in toward a collision.The results, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, should significantly impact not only the study of...
• ### Monster Black Holes Are Devouring Billions Of Suns Yikes!

03/10/2015 10:40:12 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 49 replies
spectator.org ^ | 03-10-2015 | By Gerald D. Skoning
Astronomers at Peking University recently announce the discovery of a monster black hole they say is 12 billion times the size of our own sun. To give a better sense of its enormous size, the sun is 1.3 million times the size of our Earth. In short, its a real whopper that dwarfs our planet. It is believed to be the one the most massive deep-space black holes ever recorded. With their immense gravity, black holes are constantly sucking in stars, planets, solar systems, gas, and other materials from nearby. This process heats up the gas so much that it...
• ### Black hole 12bn times more massive than sun is discovered

02/28/2015 10:32:14 AM PST · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 60 replies
theguardian.com ^ | Feb 25, 2015 | Press Association
Scientists name new object SDSS J0100+2802 and say it is 12.8bn light years from Earth and was formed just 900m years after the Big Bang *************************************************************A monster black hole powering the brightest lighthouse in the distant universe has been discovered that is 12bn times more massive than the sun, scientists have revealed.The extraordinary object is at the centre of a quasar - an intensely powerful galactic radiation source - with a million billion times the suns energy output.For years the nature of quasars, discovered in 1963, remained a mystery. Today scientists believe they are generated by matter heating up as...
• ### Monster Black Hole Is the Largest and Brightest Ever Found

02/26/2015 5:24:51 AM PST · by C19fan · 27 replies
Space.com ^ | February 25, 2015 | Charles Q. Choi
Astronomers have discovered the largest and most luminous black hole ever seen an ancient monster with a mass about 12 billion times that of the sun that dates back to when the universe was less than 1 billion years old. It remains a mystery how black holes could have grown so huge in such a relatively brief time after the dawn of the universe, researchers say.
• ### Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Too Close to a Black Hole

10/26/2014 7:32:29 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 16 replies
NASA ^ | October 26, 2014 | (see photo credit)
Explanation: What would you see if you went right up to a black hole? Featured is a computer generated image highlighting how strange things would look. The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions. Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images - one on each side of the black hole. Near the black hole, you can see the whole sky - light from every direction is bent around and comes back to you. The original background map was taken from the 2MASS...
• ### Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Two Black Holes Dancing in 3C 75

09/27/2014 9:50:48 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 22 replies
NASA ^ | September 28, 2014 | (see photo credit)
Explanation: What's happening at the center of active galaxy 3C 75? The two bright sources at the center of this composite x-ray (blue)/ radio (pink) image are co-orbiting supermassive black holes powering the giant radio source 3C 75. Surrounded by multimillion degree x-ray emitting gas, and blasting out jets of relativistic particles the supermassive black holes are separated by 25,000 light-years. At the cores of two merging galaxies in the Abell 400 galaxy cluster they are some 300 million light-years away. Astronomers conclude that these two supermassive black holes are bound together by gravity in a binary system in part...
• ### A surge of attacks against classical GR (General Relativity)

10/01/2014 1:02:17 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 9 replies
The Reference Frame ^ | September 29, 2014 | Lubo Motl
... Well, even 90 years isn't enough, it seems, so right now, we are entering new waters the denial of some basic results of general relativity, our modern theory of gravity that has been around and available to everyone since 1916. So in the last week, hundreds of publications informed their readers that it's been "mathematically proven" that the big bang theory is wrong and the black holes don't exist. These nutty claims boil down to some papers by a crackpot named Ms Laura Mersini-Houghton (no, I really, really won't accept her doctorate) who had previously claimed that she...
• ### There Are No Such Things As Black Holes

09/24/2014 12:36:10 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 87 replies
universetoday.com ^ | September 24, 2014 | Jason Major on
Thats the conclusion reached by one researcher from the University of North Carolina: black holes cant exist in our Universe not mathematically, anyway. Im still not over the shock, said Laura Mersini-Houghton, associate physics professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Weve been studying this problem for a more than 50 years and this solution gives us a lot to think about. In a news article spotlighted by UNC the scenario suggested by Mersini-Houghton is briefly explained. Basically, when a massive star reaches the end of its life and collapses under its own gravity after blasting its outer layers into space ...
• ### Hubble Helps Find Smallest Known Galaxy Containing a Supermassive Black Hole

09/19/2014 9:41:15 AM PDT · by ConservingFreedom · 15 replies
NASA ^ | September 17, 2014 | Felicia Chou
Astronomers using data from NASAs Hubble Space Telescope and ground observation have found an unlikely object in an improbable place -- a monster black hole lurking inside one of the tiniest galaxies ever known. The black hole is five times the mass of the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is inside one of the densest galaxies known to date -- the M60-UCD1 dwarf galaxy that crams 140 million stars within a diameter of about 300 light-years, which is only 1/500th of our galaxys diameter. If you lived inside this dwarf galaxy, the night sky would...
• ### Commissioner John Wiley Price arrested (Dallas)

07/25/2014 8:13:01 AM PDT · by gop4lyf · 43 replies
myFoxDFW ^ | Jul 25, 2014 | By: myfoxdfw.com Staff
<p>DALLAS - Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price was arrested Friday morning and is in federal custody.</p> <p>The arrest for bribery, mail fraud and tax fraud comes after a lengthy federal investigation.</p> <p>Three years ago, the FBI served search warrants at Prices home, his county office and at the homes and offices of others. They were looking for evidence of public corruption.</p>
• ### Dallas Democrat John Wiley Price Arrested on Fraud Charges

07/25/2014 10:47:13 AM PDT · by dignitasnews · 25 replies
Dignitas News Service ^ | July 25, 2014 | Dignitas News Service Team
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price was arrested today as a result of a 13-count indictment which claims the powerful Texas Democrat took \$950,000 in bribes. Wiley's attorney, Billy Ravkind, confirmed that he was arrested early Friday morning and is in Federal custody. The indictment indicates Wiley received the bribes in the form of cash, cars and property and that he and his political operatives used the ill-gotten gains to commit tax and mail fraud. For the full indictment, please access the following link. The indictment charges that, among other things, Price and his accomplices used his office and stature...
• ### Dallas County Commissioners Approve Slavery Reparations Resolution

06/19/2014 1:27:23 PM PDT · by Rusty0604 · 27 replies
Breitbart Texas ^ | 06/19/2014 | Chad Hasty
On Tuesday the Dallas County Commissioners Court approved a non-binding resolution unanimously that commemorated Juneteenth, but also declared that African-Americans should receive reparations for slavery. Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is facing an ongoing FBI investigation, was the author of the Juneteenth Resolution. According to the Dallas Morning News, Prices resolution included a list of items besides commemorating the day slaves in Texas learned of their freedom. it included a long list of injustices endured by blacks, from slavery to Jim Crow to predatory lending practices. Then, in its final paragraph, it declared that the suffering of African-Americans should be...
• ### Flight MH370: My theory

03/17/2014 12:42:01 PM PDT · by McGruff · 9 replies
Mail Online ^ | 17 March 2014 | My demented mind
US Navy reveals plot to beam power from SPACE using giant orbiting solar panels System could capture power in space and beam to Earth Arrays of panels 1km wide could be assembled by robots in orbit Could power military installations and even cities Would be nine times larger than the International Space Station
• ### Is It Preposterous to Think a Black Hole Caused Flight 370 to Go Missing?

03/19/2014 8:52:03 PM PDT · by MeshugeMikey · 110 replies
mediaite.com ^ | March 19th, 2014 | Josh Feldman
CNNs Don Lemon has been entertaining all sorts of theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, including the chance something supernatural happened, but on Wednesday night, he actually asked panelists about the possibility a black hole was involved.
• ### Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The View Near a Black Hole

03/23/2014 4:38:43 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 17 replies
NASA ^ | March 23, 2014 | (see photo credit)
Explanation: In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole. Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely attributes. The gas surrounding GRO J1655-40, for example, has been found to display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. Given a previous mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our Sun, the rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black...

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