Mysterious Stars Surround Andromeda's Black Hole

UltimaGuy writes to tell us that Yahoo is running a story about a recent discovery that shows the source of strange blue light coming from the center of the Andromeda galaxy. The light is actually a cluster of stars circling the galaxy's central black hole with immense orbital velocity. From the article: "Such frenetic activity was thought to prevent star formation. Stars form when a knot of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity."

Comments

Heavy elements

[pcraven]

Speaking of stars, what is the source of the heavier elements? I thought most came from star fusion, but I don't think that can account for all the elements. Plus planets seem to have a higher distribution than hydrogen-rich stars.

I like this one...

[kkek]

I Loved this link at the bottom of the article... Survival Tips for Black Hole Travelers
... Since that has SO much to do with a cluster of stars in another galaxy.

Re:Duck...

[iLogiK]

well....i haven't read TFA, but i'm assuming that the stars are going at a fraction of the speed of light, which as you all now is the speed limit in the Universe...(at least that's the theory)

but even at the speed of light it would take something from the Andromeda Galaxy a few million(/billion?) years to get here....
(of course the light is only reaching us now, so the stars might be half way here by now :D)

and even if you think you'll still be alive by then, the chances of them being on a collision course with our galaxy (let alone Earth) are REALLY small.....

oh...and the energy necessary to make leave orbit (considering that it's a FREAKING star, orbiting a FREAKING black hole!!!) is...well....a LOT!!!

Get your tin foil hats

[Perl-Pusher]

"Such frenetic activity was thought to prevent star formation. Stars form when a knot of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity."

Maybe this group of stars is not a natural phenomena? Que the twilight zone theme.

All kidding aside, they could have formed outside the vicinty and got pulled in. What keeps them from ripping apart from tidal forces is interests me.

Re:Get your tin foil hats

[TheRaven64]

In The City and The Stars, Arthur C. Clarke suggested a ring of starts left by an earlier civilisation as evidence of their advancement - a very large calling-card to anyone visiting the galaxy.

power center of advanced civilization

[peter303]

If it appears to be physically difficult to explain these stars, perhaps it is an artificial constuction. I'd expect an advanced extra-terrestial civilization to exploit the immense power of the galactic core black hole. Who knows what they are doing with it? Sustanence? Wormhole transport? Communication? Entertainment? Maybe one hundred infant stars whizzing around the center has something to do with this.

Secondary eddies

[revscat]

Like most of the morons around here, I am not a physicist, but I'm going to toss and idea out there anyhoo.

I've noticed that sometimes when dealing with spiral phenomena (hurricanes, tornadoes, whirlpools, etc.) there are secondary, much smaller spirals that are thrown off from the main body. Could this be in effect here? Could the black hole be throwing off gravitational "eddies" that cause stars to be formed?

Re:You could say ...

[Ranger]

Think mold on a peach

A shaved peach? Some people are just bastards. This started off as being ranked funny and now it's been modded down to a troll. I've had more stuff modded funny than troll. Some moderators have no fucking sense of humor.

Re:Argghh

[lgw]

To amplify: Science doesn't really care whether or not the universe was created by God, as long as He followed rules when he did so. Science seeks to understand the rules and patterns within the universe sa as to predict what we can't see based on what we can. It seems to work pretty well, so it would seem that God's playing along here, right?