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Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Found In Omega Centauri
esocid sends us to the European Space Agency's site for news of a new discovery that appears to resolve the long-standing mystery surrounding Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. The object is 17,000 light-years distant and is located just above the plane of the Milky Way. Seen from a dark rural area in the southern hemisphere, Omega Centauri appears almost as large as the full moon. What the researchers discovered is a black hole of 40,000 solar masses in the cluster's center. From the press release: "Images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and data obtained by the GMOS spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile show that Omega Centauri appears to harbor an elusive intermediate-mass black hole in its center... Exactly how Omega Centauri should be classified has always been a contentious topic. It was first listed in Ptolemy's catalog nearly two thousand years ago as a single star. Edmond Halley reported it as a nebula in 1677. In the 1830s the English astronomer John Herschel was the first to recognize it as a globular cluster. Now, more than a century later, this new result suggests Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars. According to scientists, these intermediate-mass black holes could turn out to be baby supermassive black holes."
Just about anything, really.
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
It must have a lot of gas.
Crackin' Wise - Blogging about whatever we want
So, we've now discovered the biggest and smallest black holes known to exist within about a week of each other.
Now that we've found the most average, space bears will come and blast us into porridge.
Astronomy kicks ass.
Especially when the universe works like my mind wants it to.
I propose calling them "jumbo shrimp black holes."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
So, instead of medium-size, they might actually be small big?
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
Any non-Americans will be fine. Remember, bears of any kind are born with an innate hatred for America. They are godless killing machines. As an American myself... well it was nice knowing you all.
I got a catholic block.