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Hidden Black Holes Discovered
mknewman wrote to mention a Space.com article discussing the discovery of a large group of hidden black holes. From the article:"Black holes cannot be seen directly, because they trap light and anything else that gets too close. But astronomers infer their presence by noting the behavior of material nearby: gas is superheated and accelerated to a significant fraction of light-speed just before it is consumed. The activity releases X-rays that escape the black hole's clutches and reveal its presence. "
They found the Kessel system. http://www.atombender.de/swgwiki/index.php/Kessel_ System
for hidden black holes.... what a job...
Gee, doesn't that make you feel oh-so-safe for our upcoming space travel (many lifetimes ahead of us)... "a large group of hidden black holes." pot holes of the universe? You think driving is bad *now*...
Beware, the article is quite technical:
If you extrapolate our 21 quasars out to the rest of the sky, you get a whole lot of quasars.
When asked why it took this long to discover the nature of the strange space phenomenon, Mark Lacy of the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology replied:
"Well, the thing about a Black Hole, its main distinguishing feature, is it's black. And the thing about space, your basic space color, is black. So how are you supposed to see them?"
"Derp de derp."
Is this actually one of the few moments in Slashdot news when "Nothing to see here, please move along" is literally true?
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