Mysterious Stars Surround Andromeda's Black Hole

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Mysterious Stars Surround Andromeda's Black Hole

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:01AM from the hot-young-stars dept.

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."

13 of 341 comments (clear)

Duh. by ackthpt · 2005-09-21 05:02 · Score: 5, Funny

strange blue light coming from the center of the Andromeda galaxy.
It's the resurgence of K-Mart!

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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Cold fucking cathode by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-21 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny

Stinking ricers have taken over a whole galaxy. If you think galactic undercarriage lighting is bad, wait till you hear them blasting that galactic bass late at night.
Get it right.. by beldraen · 2005-09-21 05:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Stars form when a knot of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity.

No... Stars form however they damn well please. Our current models suggest it is done under their own gravity, but our models are not reality. They are our understanding of reality and are modified or thrown out when we find our understanding is wrong. The universe is always right.

P.S. Sorry, it's one of my pet pieves when someone says "that not how physics works!"

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Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
1. Re:Get it right.. by ifwm · 2005-09-21 05:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "No... Stars form however they damn well please"
  
  No, stars form however the rules of the universe allow them to.
  
  P.S. Sorry, but it's one of my pet peeves when people anthropomorphize inanimate objects.
2. Re:Get it right.. by lgw · 2005-09-21 06:17 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  One night a physisist, and engineer, and a mathematician each awoke to a fire in their kitchen. The physisist calculated the precise amount of water necessary to extinguish the fire, measure out just that amount of water, poured it on the fire, and went back to bed. The engineer poour water on the fire till is went out, added some mor for good measure, then went back to bed. The mathematician proved that is was possible to extinguish fire with water, then went back to bed.
  
  --
  Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
3. Re:Get it right.. by MajorBlunder · 2005-09-21 07:58 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  While the statistician was running around starting new fires because he needed more samples.
  
  --
  "I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up."
Re:Elements past iron by MaskedSlacker · 2005-09-21 05:11 · Score: 5, Informative

Actually its neutron accretion that produces elements heavier than iron, not fusion. Iron disintegrates at temperatures lower than what it will fuse at.
One black hole by Black+Parrot · 2005-09-21 05:13 · Score: 5, Funny

To rule them all,
And in the Darkness bind them.

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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Well... by slobber · 2005-09-21 05:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

IANAA, but could these stars have formed prior to being caught by the gravity of that black hole?

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"You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
1. Re:Well... by swelke · 2005-09-21 06:28 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  That's quite possible. If they formed in a wider orbit around the black hole, for example, they could well have been caught by tidal drag and slowly moved into lower orbits.
  
  The real question is how they can exist at all in such a low orbit (or, more accurately, how they can exist in such a strong gravity gradient). What happens is that if they tidal difference between the two sides of the star (the difference between the black hole's gravity at the closest edge of the star and that on the furthest edge) exceeds the star's escape velocity, matter will be able to leave the star and it just falls apart. The implication (which the Yahoo! article was too low-tech to get right) was that the stars must be very dense. A dense star will have both (a) less distance between that nearest and furthest edge and (b) a steeper gravity well for material to get out of in the first place.
  
  The other interesting bit is the rather close estimate of the black hole's mass. Most of the other estimates of galactic center black hole masses I've seen are based on things orbiting them far more distantly, such as 10-100 light years.
  
  --
  Have you ever wondered How to Take Over
Re:An escaping star?? HA! by Intron · 2005-09-21 05:17 · Score: 5, Funny

FEMA announced plans to start working on the problem in 3.1 billion years.

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Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
power center of advanced civilization by peter303 · 2005-09-21 05:20 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
Re:Elements past iron by MaskedSlacker · 2005-09-21 05:47 · Score: 5, Informative

No, because hydrogen is a single proton, not a single neutron. I forget the exact mechanics of neutron accretion, as its not my field of direct study, but it occurs in two forms, the r-process (rapid) and the s-process(slow) (we physicists are not known for being creative with names). The r-process occurs in supernovae when heavy nuclei are bombarded by many neutrons, ad rather than splitting the target nuclei, the neutrons stick (at the same time the nuclei are radiating particles away, but not as fast as they are gaining them). Once the process stops, the new, super neutron rich nuclei give off beta radiation (changing neturons into protons) until they reach a stable configuration. The s-process occurs in large, but otherwise stable stars. This process however only produces elements as heavy as lead. Anything heavier is produced by the r-process.