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Chandra Sees Black Hole Rip Star Apart

Posted by timothy on from the justin-timberlake-did-it dept.

beeplet writes "Nasa just sent out this press release titled about an exciting Chandra observation. It states: "Thanks to two orbiting X-ray observatories, astronomers have the first strong evidence of a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star and consuming a portion of it. The event, captured by NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatories, had long been predicted by theory, but never confirmed." There is more information on the Chandra home page, including the x-ray and optical observations that were involved in the discovery." Note that the star-ripping pictured on the front page is labeled an illustration, rather than an recorded image.

7 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. It's a DRAWING, not a PHOTOGRAPH by Amsterdam+Vallon · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Please include one sentence, Timothy, mentioning this is not REAL per se, it's just an illustration.

    Otherwise it's very deceiving.

    --

    Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
  2. Ob. Goatse Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Here's another kind of star being ripped into a black hole.

  3. MOD PARENT +1 INTERESTING/INFORMATIVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    There really should be a brief mention that it's a fake picture.

  4. In a related story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    ...Gary Condit swears he had never even seen the star before in his life.

  5. In other news another black hole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Observers close to goatse.cx say that a massive black hole at the rear end of goatse.cx is sucking in all around it. The .cx domain admins had to shut down this threat to society before it sucks in the whole of the universe.

    Many people have given others the link to goatse.cx, only to be followed by a "sucked in!" call when they see this monstrosity. Further proof that the black hole of goatse.cx has been sucking in the entire world. It is in fact the weapon of mass destruction (WMD) that Bush was talking about. All along it was in sadam's anus, as he is the goatse.cx or iraq (goatse.rq)

  6. Chandra Sees Black Hole Rip Star Apart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    So in other words, one thing has torn another thing a new hole? Cute. Ooohhhh Goooaatseeeee....

  7. Re:Cheers by Aquilo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    "OUR CURRENT UNDERSTANDING OF physics says that faster than light travel is impossible" if light can travel faster then the "speed of light" why can't we do that with other matter one day? if we don't stop saying every thing is impossible then hey it may just end up that way but if you say it is possible you may just find a way to do it. now when I say "light can travel faster then the speed of light" I will back this up by saying we know that mass can bend and force light to travel faster then the "speed of light".