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Astronomers Dissect a Supermassive Black Hole

Matt_dk sends along a piece from the European Southern Observatory, which reports on observations of the so-called "Einstein Cross," a fortuitous conjunction of a nearby galaxy and a distant black hole. A team of researchers from Europe and the US combined the effects of macrolensing (from the intervening galaxy) and microlensing (from stars in that galaxy), captured by an earth-bound telescope. "Combining a double natural 'magnifying glass' with the power of ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have scrutinized the inner parts of the disc around a supermassive black hole 10 billion light-years away. They were able to study the disc with a level of detail a thousand times better than that of the best telescopes in the world, providing the first observational confirmation of the prevalent theoretical models of such discs."

12 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. rest of sentence by uberjoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    And were never seen again.

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  2. And yet... by Hertne · · Score: 5, Funny

    the article makes absolutely no mention of glaciers melting in the dead of night.

  3. When passing the event horizon, it's expected. by sethstorm · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least they'd be able to say they worked closely together on the issue.

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  4. Black hole autopsy by Coraon · · Score: 3, Funny

    The new fox special: "Where did it come from? was this the child of the LHC? which shadowy government agency was responable for its capture? all will be reviled in Black Hole autopsy, tonight on fox!"

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  5. CSI Spinoff by retech · · Score: 2, Funny

    This will only lead to yet another CSI spinoff, CSI: ESO. Of course Jeff Goldblum will have to be the quirky male lead that fascinates us while still making us slightly uncomfortable.

  6. Wow, that is some serious science. by blue+l0g1c · · Score: 1, Funny

    If I'm understanding it right. Unfortunately I can't even come up with a car analogy to describe what I think they're doing.

  7. Re:GOATSE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    For the first time, a first post linking to goatse under a science article may be considered on-topic.

  8. Oh no :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Those freakin' scientists...MICROLENSING the black hole! And a supermassive one at that. The audacity.

    In fact, I can just hear it now:

    ooh baby don't you know I suffer??

  9. For once, it's relevant. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    N/T

  10. Re:Scully Using a Very Large Scapel for Dissection by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The question is where they'd get a large enough scalpel to dissect a supermassive black hole?

    And yet sharp enough to dissect a singularity.

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  11. Car Analogy. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's sort of as if by combining a double natural 'magnifying glass' with the power of ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have scrutinized the inner parts of a car 10 billion light-years away. They were able to study the car with a level of detail a thousand times better than that of the best telescopes in the world, providing the first observational confirmation of the prevalent theoretical models of such cars.

    Hope that helps!

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  12. Re:Other common dumbing-down... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

    How many football fields away is that?

    Lots. Like, a whole fucking lot.

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