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More Blackholes Discovered...

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the including-one-in-your-head dept.

Lispy writes "Space.com has this story about the surprising finding of missing blackholes. There might be up to five times more blackholes in space than previously estimated. "The European Southern Observatory in Munich, Germany reports that the black holes were all in "active" galaxies, meaning they were actively consuming large quantities of galactic matter.""

7 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although some say that these black holes account for the "missing matter" that is needed for the universe to gravitationally collapse upon itself some hundreds of billions of years in the future, current analysis shows that the mass of all black holes are less than one trillionth of the mass of the universe.

    Even if there are a thousand more times the number of black holes out there, it still won't account for the so-called "missing mass".

    Of course, there could be many million times more black holes out there. Or some other large masses that we have yet to find. In any case, this 2-to-5 times the number of black holes isn't the (possible) mass we're looking for.

  2. Re:What if by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 4, Informative

    As far as we know, black holes result from the collapse of a star. They don't just "appear" for no reason. The new ones discovered were obscured by their accretion disks and the torus of gas and matter surrounding them.

    That's like saying what if dead bodies suddenly started appearing everywhere - without there having been live people first. Corpses don't just "appear" out of nowhere, they have to be made :)

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  3. Re:Just don't consider this as a fact by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Occam's Razor

    "Occam's razor is a logical principle attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (or Ockham). The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. This principle is often called the principle of parsimony. It underlies all scientific modelling and theory building. It admonishes us to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest one. In any given model, Occam's razor helps us to "shave off" those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there is less chance of introducing inconsistencies, ambiguities and redundancies."

    Don't make things more difficult then they have to be. Black holes are the simplest explanation. Anti-matter and anti-gravity is a more complex explanation than what is possibly needed.

    --
    "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
  4. Re:How can scientists know...? by alienmole · · Score: 3, Informative
    How can you tell there's a mosquito in the room when you cannot see it?

    RTFA:

    Black holes cannot actually be seen, because they trap all matter and light that enters them. But if an active galaxy is viewed from above, the hole in the middle of the torus allows a good view of the accretion disk, allowing astronomers to infer the presence of the black hole.

    The new study looked at galaxies that were edge-on, but deduced the black holes by studying emissions in various wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

  5. Re:Does this change anything? by barakn · · Score: 3, Informative

    The idea of a black hole 'sucking' things in is wrong. If our own sun was to turn into a black hole, the planets wouldn't suddenly get ripped out of their orbits and inexorably dragged (kicking and screaming) into it. Black holes, like all other massive accreting objects, have to wait for stuff to come their way. At the center of a galaxy, where matter is denser (more stars, more gas), things around the black hole can get involved in a massive traffic jam. The losers are sent by collisions or gravitational interactions on orbits straight towards the hole. Eventually the hole eats so much of the traffic that there's no longer a traffic jam. The objects orbiting around it don't interact with each other enough to get sent towards the hole, and the hole is now on a strict diet. This is the state of our own Milky Way. If our galaxy were to collide with another, a density wave of stars and gas might get sent towards the black hole, and it would start to eat again. So, yes, there are active and passive black holes.

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  6. Re:more blackholes? by Decaff · · Score: 3, Informative

    this is all just to outline
    the real question. would i every reach the event
    horizon, befor the univers came to an end?

    Yes. You are only frozen at the event horizon from the point of view of someone distant from the black hole. Also, you are only frozen there for a short while in practice. The light by which they could see you would be red shifted by gravity until pretty soon you are invisible.

    From your point of view, you fall in in finite time.

    Remember, relativity does not guarantee synchronicity. A black hole produces the ultimate split in synchroncity: From the point of view of an outsider, you don't fall in. From your point of view, you do. The paradox is resolved because even for the outsider, you become invisible and undetectable except as a mass increase in the black hole.

  7. Whoops, whack third paragraph by Jerf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Whoops, whack my third paragraph. Wikipedia says it all better and probably more accurately.