Ken in Berkeley

The most massive known black hole in the universe has been discovered, weighing in with the mass of 18 billion Suns. Observing the orbit of a smaller black hole around this monster has allowed astronomers to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before.

The black hole is about six times as massive as the previous record holder and in fact weighs as much as a small galaxy. It lurks 3.5 billion light years away, and forms the heart of a quasar called OJ287. A quasar is an extremely bright object in which matter spiralling into a giant black hole emits copious amounts of radiation.

But rather than hosting just a single colossal black hole, the quasar appears to harbour two – a setup that has allowed astronomers to accurately 'weigh' the larger one.

The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years. It comes close enough to punch through the disc of matter surrounding the larger black hole twice each orbit, causing a pair of outbursts that make OJ287 suddenly brighten.



http://space.newscientist.com/articl...iscovered.html

That's a pretty big hole in the sky!

Jonesy

That is extremely cool. I wonder why we think of it as a 'hole'. It sucks things in and they disappear, but the same thing happens with the sun.

Very few things as intriguing to me as these black holes.

Jonesy

How about this for a theory:

It isn't a hole, it is a special kind of matter (dark matter, or a variation?) which simply absorbs and fuses with anything it attracts. This is how it gets so big. This is also how it touches the 4th dimensional plane in such a way a sphere is created.

Jonesy

They aren't too far away... but I guess if they come here, we can unilaterally attack them.

Jonesy

If these black holes are not holes, and will kill us, maybe our only way to survive in this universe is to become the gazelle. How could we ever fight these black hole lions?

The_Heretic

Stay away from the, of course.

Actually getting sucked into one wouldn't be as bad as it seems. For those caught in the event horizon it'd be over before you knew it, though the rest of the universe would be able to witness for eons.

__________________

John McCain: "He's in Iraq... with a few centuries to kill."





You won't fight for the Bill of Right? Fine! I won't fight for you in the ballot box!

Jonesy

In the long-run, being a gazelle in space is not so bad cause there's so much room to run.

Jonesy

Power is relative. These black holes show us how small and weak we really are. Which is good, because it makes the path perfectly clear. When the black hole approaches... our entire existence suddenly seems.... stupid. It is then we know, fear is true genius... and also relative.

Jonesy

We sit around on this planet with no competition, and we think we're bad-ass. We look out into the universe, and it's like our playground. We think, we fuckin' rock. A giant meteor? We can take it... haven't you seen Armageddon? Alien attack? No problem... haven't you seen Independence Day? But then... the black hole comes around and it's like 'oh fuck'. Now we know what the fuck is really going on here...

BleedingPinky

Isaac Newton would have surely get a high over this.