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Milky Way Black Hole Could Reignite

Posted by kdawson on from the tinfoil-umbrellas-might-help dept.

sciencehabit sends us to Sciencemag.org for an account of a survey of nearby galaxies that points to the possibility that once-quiescent galactic nuclei could wake up and become active again. If the Milky Way's dormant black hole should become active, it could be bad news for life on Earth (and elsewhere in the neighborhood). The paper (PDF) is up on the arXiv.

1 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Eye muss bee knew hear by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The way the black hole could turn into a quasar is for the galaxy to collide with another galaxy."

    That's not what the article says:
    It's not understood what is causing the black holes to become newly active, because in most cases there is no evidence of collisions or mergers.

    --
    Better known as 318230.