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It's Official: Black Holes Have Lots Of Mass

Posted by chrisd on from the invigorating-galactic-jacuzzi dept.

KewlPC writes "Spaceflight Now reports in this article that some scientists have been able to measure the "weight" (yeah, yeah, it's actually mass, not weight) of a black hole that is (or was, 13 billion years ago) eating up the most distant known quasar, some 13 billion light years away."

2 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Someone's bitter memories of high-school physics? by tunah · · Score: 4, Insightful
    the "weight" (yeah, yeah, it's actually mass, not weight)

    What was all that about? Why not just say "the mass"? This is on a site that uses computer and physics jargon and acronyms all the time, mass isn't exactly an obscure concept.

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  2. Re:Duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You may have noticed that modern astronomy does not generally have a "goal" other than to get as much information as possible about the universe and assemble theories to explain it. We have not enough technology yet for there to be a true purpose to astronomy. (Unless you count the building of an ISS, ... but the purpose of that is still just to gather data, etc.) This is like screaming, upon seeing Fermat's Last Theorem: "AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO USE THIS FOR?"