Slashdot Mirror
Black Hole Cluster Spawns Massive Cloud
Shifty Jim writes in with an article at space.com reporting that a cluster of galaxies harboring black holes may be the source of a massive cloud millions of light years across. Quoting: "A giant cloud of superheated gas 6 million light years wide might be formed by the collective sigh of several supermassive black holes, scientists say. The plasma cloud... might be the source of mysterious cosmic rays that permeate our universe... The plasma cloud is located about 300 million light years away near the Coma Cluster and is spread across a vast region of space thought to contain several galaxies with supermassive black holes... embedded at their centers."
Cowboy Neal's black hole spawns a massive cloud of stink on a daily basis.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Google "Hawking Radiation". (Thermal radiation thought to be emitted by black holes due to quantum effects - named after British physicist Stephen Hawking, who provided the theoretical argument for its existence in 1974.)
"so what makes this guy think this particular "cloud" has agreater probability of being the source of the "cosmic rays" that "permeate" our universe?"
They don't:
"he new finding could also help explain the unwanted and confusing "noise" scientists observe in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Kronberg said. The CMB is a ubiquitous radiation in the universe that is said to be a remnant of the Big Bang."
Now, if you read that carefully, it is said that this could explain the *noise* in the CMB, not the CMB itself. Half a point for reading through the article though.
Correction: was located
That's that damnest thing about observing something 300 million light years away.