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More Evidence for Coming Black Hole Collision (total mass > a billion suns)
NYTimes ^ | 9/16/15 | Dennis Overbye

Posted on 09/22/2015 9:34:46 AM PDT by LibWhacker

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 galaxy’s 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 as much energy as 100 million supernova explosions, mostly in the form of violent ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves that would blow the stars out of that hapless galaxy like leaves off a roof.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: black; blackhole; blackholecollision; blackholes; collision; galaxy; gravitationalwave; gravitationalwaves; hole; pg1302102; quasar; supermassive
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Just when they turn up the ultimate gee-whiz fact about the universe, they find another one... The energy of 100 MILLION SUPERNOVAE!!! I wonder if there will ever be an end to such discoveries? I hope not (as long as none of them spells our doom!).
1 posted on 09/22/2015 9:34:46 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

If it’s 3.5 billion light years away from us, doesn’t that mean it happened 3.5 billion years ago and the light from the event is just now getting here?


2 posted on 09/22/2015 9:36:06 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Is the Pope Catholic?)
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To: LibWhacker

Or maybe not.


3 posted on 09/22/2015 9:36:27 AM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: LibWhacker

3.5 Billion light years from here.

So already happened. A very, very, very long time ago.

We’re already dead, just don’t know it yet.


4 posted on 09/22/2015 9:37:47 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: LibWhacker

Any chance of the black hole opening in D.C.?


5 posted on 09/22/2015 9:39:01 AM PDT by Cats Pajamas (Romans 1:18-32 ..............God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things.....)
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To: LibWhacker

I hope they have good insurance.


6 posted on 09/22/2015 9:40:19 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Cats Pajamas

The black hole is already there. It’s where our money goes - never to be seen again.


7 posted on 09/22/2015 9:40:36 AM PDT by sevlex
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
If it’s 3.5 billion light years away from us, doesn’t that mean it happened 3.5 billion years ago and the light from the event is just now getting here?

No, they are Snap Chatting it live.

8 posted on 09/22/2015 9:40:41 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: tanknetter

I sense a disturbance in the force.


9 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:08 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (I've switched. Trump is my #1. He understands how to get things done. Cruz can be VP.)
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To: Cats Pajamas

DC is already a black hole.

Where trillions of dollars disappear every year.

And where, if you go there as a politician, all your values disappear as well..........


10 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:17 AM PDT by Arlis ( A "Sacred Cow" Tipping Christian)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Correct. But the gravitational wave front that blew away all the stars of the galaxy like leaves in storm also has yet to arrive here (although greatly attenuated; we’re safe). Should be interesting to watch (in 100,000 years or so).


11 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:34 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

A contrarian word of advice: Some galaxies are only 10 feet away, but are very, very tiny.


12 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:44 AM PDT by fwdude (The last time the GOP ran an "extremist," Reagan won 44 states.)
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To: tanknetter

I believe that the reason we won’t ever detect the existence of other sentient life in the universe is because it’s duration is so darn short. Our human existence has been the space-time equivalent of the blink of an eye!


13 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:55 AM PDT by jpl ("You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists." - Lt. General Michael Flynn)
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To: LibWhacker

Bush’s fault.


14 posted on 09/22/2015 9:45:15 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon (Call me a "Free Traitor" if it amuses you. It will only strengthen my resolve.)
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To: LibWhacker

Bush’s fault. Bush and those damned SUVs.

Womyn and minorities will be hardest hit.


15 posted on 09/22/2015 9:45:37 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
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To: fwdude

You must be a Philip K. Dick fan!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Bubbles


16 posted on 09/22/2015 9:46:52 AM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Think of it like when NBC does the Olympics with their “live to tape” thing. We get to watch it like it’s live, even though it’s really on delay.


17 posted on 09/22/2015 9:47:20 AM PDT by discostu (dream big and dance a lot)
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To: Cats Pajamas

Strange things happen in black holes... Like black a**holes getting elected to high office.


18 posted on 09/22/2015 9:47:53 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: discostu

Great analogy. I get a headache when I think about it too deeply, LOL.


19 posted on 09/22/2015 9:48:58 AM PDT by nascarnation (C. Edmund Wright says I'm a moron)
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To: Cats Pajamas
Any chance of the black hole opening in D.C.?

Every time 0 opens his mouth

20 posted on 09/22/2015 9:49:04 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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