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There's a Hole in the Middle of It All
Apparition writes "CNN is reporting that the star at the center of our galaxy is actually a super-massive black hole. The article then claims that it occupies a volume of space about 3 times that of our solar system. If my math is correct, about 230 million suns could fit into that same volume, so it doesn't impress me that the claimed mass of the black hole is only between 2.6 and 3.7 million times that of the sun. So what is up here? Since when do black holes occupy so much space (I thought they were points)? And how can something with a density only 1/100 of our Sun be called super-massive?" I think the article is talking about a maximum possible size of the object, due to limitations on the resolution of our instruments. Nature has a no-registration story about the research. Update: 10/16 23:44 GMT by M : There's an article with more information on space.com, and a press release from the European Southern Observatory.
Would this be the proverbial drain that we're all swirling around to our eventual demise?
Just wondering.
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
From the very center, this galaxy sucks.
That's Florida.
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
Since when do black holes occupy so much space (I thought they were points)?
They're big points.
RMN
~~~
if the "big crunch" theory is correct, it will probably be a singularity that the universe ends as.
I think you mean the "gnab gib." You, know, a Big Bang backwards? I've seen it before, and it's quite a sight. It plays every night at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
You know you've been spending too much time on /. when you read the last sentence of the above reply as "It may experience a slashdot effect".
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
I can't believe how Milky-Way-centric that Slashdot still is. The bias is incredible. Nowhere in this story does it identify which galaxy, as if we all live in the same galaxy. For chrissake, people, it's the Internet.
Jeez.
-Waldo Jaquith
That's why we should throw a party at the event horizon. Everyone arrives at the same time and the party lasts forever.
That or nobody ever gets there and the ride is extremely short.
I can't remember which was the inside observer and which was the outside observer. I think it mixes reference points. The same time reference point is short, and the never arrive takes forever.
Isn't relativity fun?
Network Security: It always comes down to a big guy with a gun.
I like your name for it better. "Gib" just seems like a much more appropriate name for the end of the universe. "What happened to the universe?" "Oh, it got gibbed"
"Gib Gnab" is actually a phrase from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the late Douglas Adams. (Dang it, why can't you underline stuff in /. comments? :( ) It's big bang spelled backards and not meant to be a referrence to the recently coined "gibs" in anyway. The reading of these books is a requirement to be a geek. I take them quite seriously.
Some of the more avant guard sting theorists
I know Sting has gone a bit far off the norm recently, but is there really a discipline and a body of scientists dedicated to studying him?
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[string] theorists are advancing the notion that black holes are simply really really big (as in high energy) elementary particles (i.e. strings).
:-)
Maybe Perl can be applied to figure out a really big string
Table-ized A.I.