Slashdot Mirror
Black Hole Blasts Neighbor Galaxy with Deadly Jet
butterwise writes to mention that astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed a super-massive black hole hitting a nearby galaxy with a "death-star-like" beam of energy. The story also has a video with simulations, pictures, and explanations. "The 'death star galaxy,' as NASA astronomers called it, could obliterate the atmospheres of planets but also trigger the birth of stars in the wake of its destructive beam. Fortunately, the cosmic violence is a safe distance from our own neck of the cosmos."
Imagine that on a Boeing, you wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage, there'd be nothing remotely collateral left :-)
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
Black hole denies farting; blames it on nearby neutron star.
If you want to be taken seriously as an astronomer then might I suggest not comparing your research to fictional works
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
When those pesky x-wings fly down and shoot the exhaust vent....
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
that they could not nail down the exact nature of the exotic object giving off the deadly beam, but they did offer that "that's no moon"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
This is what happens when you're not willing to move your galaxy out of the path of a new intergalactic highway. Please don't complain about not knowing about it. The drawings been available in the next galaxy over for ages now.
This is old news, this did happen 1.4 billion years ago.
Sharks in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!
Or was that pigs?
liqbase
That doesn't help the poor aliens living in that neck of the cosmos, you insensitive clod!
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
It's a trap!
That would indirectly suggest that in this galaxy there was no sufficiently advanced life that would detect, and try to protect itself, or stop, said "death ray".
Some people believe the universe is chock full of life, but this one is score for the skeptics. I remain a cautious optimist.
We often take for granted when we see these cool renditions of distant space that these images are only possible when based on the leaps and bounds made with various telescopes over the last 50+ years:
"Only now by combining the images of radio telescopes, the optical and ultraviolet eyes of Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, can researchers put together the entire violent story about this intergalactic mugging.
The coordinated use of such an array of diverse and powerful telescopes is one of the unheralded triumphs of modern physics, Tyson said. "This is an example of the triumph of that exercise." http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/17/galaxy-black-hole-02.html
Just the fact that we can observe such a dramatic event is awe-inspiring.
Health Insurance Quotes
Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power.
If you want to be taken seriously as an astronomer then might I suggest not comparing your research to fictional works
;-)
Your suggestion is laughable, astronomers use fiction all the time. Consider the names of the planets, some constellations, etc. I apologize if you believe in the greek/roman gods, you have to consider that most of us consider them fictional.
The space age is great. It lets us all see that we live on the same small world. One that could, in princple, be accidently blown up by a careless, nearby black hole.
If you want to relate to the masses, instead of assuming everyone who might be interested in your work has a degree in astrophysics, you might compare your research to fictional works easily recognized in society.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
What better hideout to build your death-ray then a black hole?
Granted, things might be a bit crammed... but that shouldn't be much of a problem.
... as if on cue.
exactly what you think it means. I guess it was interstellar "fajitas night" or something.
It isn't a memory leak. It's an object life-span issue.
Quote: Just the fact that we can observe such a dramatic event is awe-inspiring.
I find the ever-increasing application of computing power to analyzing these sorts of problems, coupled with the incredible global communications flexibility we have today, to be pretty awe-inspiring. We've come a long way from dialing into BBSes; I can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings for research.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Terrence and Phillip?
Help find a cure for cancer!
...which will consist of Rush Limbaugh figuring out a way to pin this on the Clintons, and Dennis Kucinich formulating a plan to deal with it...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
-1 "Telekinetic Force Choke" for botching one of the most well-know lines in cinematic history...
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
The article states: Both galaxies are situated about 1.4 billion light-years away from Earth.
and then goes on with: The offending galaxy probably began assaulting its companion about 1 million years ago...
If the distance is 1.4 billion light years, light from the event should be taking that much time to reach us, and something that happened only a million years ago should not be visible yet.
What am I missing here?
butterwise writes to mention that astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed a super-massive black hole hitting a nearby galaxy with a "death-star-like" beam of energy.
Meanwhile Icantbelieveitsnotbutter states that all astronomers are starwars geeks but not all starwars geeks are astronomers.
The story also has a video with simulations, pictures, and explanations.
OK I made a mistake, all astronomers are starwars uber-geeks...
He who hath smelt it may have dealt it, but thou shalt remember that which is silent may also be violent.
... is "jet from supermassive black holes"?
I always thought no particle/energy can escape the event horizon of a black hole.
Please explain.
So you are saying it is better to be microwaved on "low" than the "high" setting?
At least on "high" you would probably not feel it as much.
To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
Dang. One black hole can blast an entire galaxy?!
It's a wonder we are here at all...
Woah! This is exactly the premise of A. A. Attanasio's Radix! A line of energy from a black hole hits earth (after having passed over countless other worlds) and interferes with its magnetic field, eventually leading to mass mutations. Brilliant book. :D Out of print, though, as far as I can tell. :(
Reality is fluffy!
Or as they say around here: "Sorry 'bout your bad luck"
In addition, some astronomers even write science fiction. :)
(That begs a question: Do theoretical physicists write science fiction? Outside of work, I mean? ;-) )
They sometimes appear in Star Trek TV episodes, Stephen Hawking.
This is what happens when a seductive mama galaxy spins in close proximity to an excited papa galaxy.
Is it possible that advanced civilizations are having it out with super powerful weapons? Using the mass-destroying power of a black hole to wipe out an enemy galaxy?
If so, then I for one welcome our galaxy-destroying overlords, at least for now.
... it could be aiming Uranus.
-x- Sorry my bad English. I'll have him tarred and feathered. -x-
will of course involve increasing taxes to make the problem go away. We don't know how that will make the problem go away, but such people always seem to think that upping taxes magically solves problems.
My personal feeling is that probably many trillions of sentient beings probably died when that jet first hit.
Makes you think.
expandfairuse.org
In a speech today, Bush promoted renewed investment in the space agency. "See, we've finally found the WMD and they're in another galaxy, see. It is imperative we develop the technology to impose regime change as quick as possible. 9-11."
Maybe someone can help me out here, according to the article:
Both galaxies are situated about 1.4 billion light-years away from Earth.
And then in another paragraph:
The offending galaxy probably began assaulting its companion about 1 million years ago
and goes on to say that it's recent, etc etc.
Is this simply a huge oversight on the author's part with respect to the speed of light, or am I missing something here?
My understanding is that it must have happened about ohh 1.5 billion years ago, right?
Graduate students and most professors are no smarter than undergrads.
They're just older.
"Don't taze me, galatic bro!"
Table-ized A.I.
"I told ya to put the toilet seat up. You sprayed all over our yard, you big glipnorf!"
Table-ized A.I.
No, but I can imagine Beowulff Shaffer flying the Long Shot to go have a look at one.
You can have my SIG when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Maybe their solution was to get out of there (colonize other planets, flee into another dimension, etc) because they were able to formally prove there is no way to master a black hole?
Alternatively, they may be taking advantage of this phenomenon, using the radiation somehow.
The saddest poem
[a little off-topic, i know] That just reminds me of something striking in the original quote, "...has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes..."
So let me get this straight. They have hyper-space interstellar travel, blaster guns, light sabers, intelligent robots, hover cars, space stations the size of a moon.... and they still store data, on TAPE ?
That other galaxy is just in the way of new intergalactic superhighway. What's blasting a whole galaxy to smithereens compared to reaching all the interesting places in less that a billion years ?
... remnants from a similar jet is what Earth is currently passing through? As a result our ozone layer has been subjected to some depletion and other atmospheric effects have led to a slight global change in climate. Yeah, yeah. A hypothesis riddled with weak points BUT before you slag it with "why it can't ....", what if we extend our minds a bit and see if it could happen THEN slag it.
What if say, our companion dwarf galaxies have somehow redirected a bit of a similar jet from our own galactic black hole and Earth's just started swimming through it?
Or what about the POV of some planet in the affected galaxy that might well have noticed the effects of the onset of the jet but not had the technology or scientific principles to deduce the source eg.they had no black hole theory or no inclination for astronomy. What would their deductions have been and what courses of action might they have been inclined to follow as they saw their atmosphere changing?
Or, with all the hypothesizing about Dark Matter and Energy, is it possible that Dark Jets exist? If so, what might those be and what might they entail? Anyone on the cutting edge of this field?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Whomever tagged the story "donttasemedude", stop smoking ganja, at least while you're reading news. Idiot. The quote is "Don't tase me, bro!" Now don't fuck it up by spreading an incorrect version. This is how stupidity is created.
Bush prefers to throw it on the credit card instead of making us pay for it now. :)
Note that civilizations there might be scared, thinking they were being exterminated by an angry god.
They'd be wrong of course.
Though if they were right, woe be to us all. Fall on your knees and worship Him!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The spectre of Vesuvius for our modern age. It seems that no matter what the scale or scope of your civilization, natural disasters just don't go away. Looks like we'd better colonize outside our galaxy as quickly as we can. Since the danger is electromagnetic, this is a case of not seeing the bullet until you've already been shot. Without faster-than-light communication and some monitoring posts quite a distance from Earth, there's no possibility of an early-warning system.
True science means that when you re-evaluate the evidence, you re-evaluate your faith.
I submitted this yesterday afternoon, I guess butterwise beat me to it. My link was to New Scientist Galaxy fires powerful particle beam at neighbour" -mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
... and I hear he is bringing a really big pot and a frog suit!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling