Astronomy Picture of the Day 6-01-03

NASA ^ | 6-01-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 June 1

GRO J1655-40: Evidence for a Spinning Black Hole
Drawing Credit: A. Hobart, CXC

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 hole that is rotating very rapidly. What physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) -- in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research.

[petuniasevan]

Translation: "Something weird is going on there and we don't know squat about it!"

It's the weird stuff and the unknown which makes any science interesting (and keeps its practitioners humble). We sure don't know as much about the universe as we'd like to. Of course, the search for knowledge itself is key: the journey is almost as important as the destination.

[petuniasevan]

[petuniasevan]

May 30/31 2003 solar eclipse photos gleaned from the Web:

[Brad’s Gramma]

Wow!

[sit-rep]

This blows my mind...

Talk about not worrying too much about being late for the party!

[firewalk]

Good morning
Thanks for the ping

[petuniasevan]

That SNR was the subject of the May 28 2003 APOD!


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/918722/posts

[sistergoldenhair]

Fantastic.
Thanks for the ping.

[sit-rep]

Well, if you have a "Cosmic Bang List", add me to it! I am no scholar, but I love the cosmos threads.

[petuniasevan]

Well, I DO have an APOD PING list.

Unix will be doing the honors tonight through next Monday.

I will freepmail your name to be added to unix' list.

[sit-rep]

APOD??

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture Of the Day.

[sit-rep]

Astronomy Picture Of the Day.

I knew that!(blush)

Yes, if you can add me i'd be much obliged.

[Soaring Feather]

WOW!!! AWESOME!!!!

[foolish-one]

So cool. Thanks.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Love the space art - thanks!

[theDentist]

The aspect of black holes that I can't seem to grasp is that it's got such great gravitational pull that nothing escapes it. Fine. Then what about all these gasses and radiation plumes jetting out from the center? Shouldn't these, too, be consumed by the hole, or is it that they travel at such a velocity that they are somehow emitted before reaching the event horizon?

And can I use that in court when I try to explain why I was traveling 74 in a 55 zone because of an unexpected emission of some sort due to my singularity?

[Quix]

Am curious . . . how many . . . what percentage of such . . . what . . . pincacles of streaming gas from the center . . .

what percentage of the found such are pointing our direction vs perpendicular to our line of sight and how could we tell?

[SunkenCiv]

It’s gotta be pointing directly at us (give or take attenuation) to detect it in this fashion. Given the sheer number of astronomical objects, there are bound to be quite a few in existence, but only a few of those will be visible. :’)

[Quix]

Hmmm.

Thx.