Slashdot Mirror
Black Hole Swallows Star
Thorfinn.au writes "The New Scientist writes a conjectural piece to explain the light pattern of SCP 06F6 in what was first identified as a supernova — but observations show a skewed and stretched light curve not fitting with an current theoretical explanation of exploding stars. Also, the discussion in the comments is interesting."
and you couldn't summarize the "discussion in the comments" in the summary because...
We're next! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
I guess Samantha Carter's plan worked!
over 50% of black holes in the western hemisphere are clinically obese. It's though that the high availability and low cost of stars is to blame. Ejection of gas is one of the many unfortunate side-effects.
But wouldn't a roving black hole produce a tell-tale roving gravitational lensing?
from the last paragraph of tfa:
Gaensicke hopes one of Hubble's new cameras, the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed on the last space shuttle mission to visit the telescope, could reveal more about the object's origins. The camera may be able to spot a host galaxy around the object that was too faint to see with other instruments.
As our instrumentation improves, we'll probably have many more head-scratching discoveries...
Well unfortunately you cannot tell very much about what happens in this system ( wether it is a binary system or not) by what is happening with the light. You would have to look at the x-ray spectrum to be able to measure the kind of energies in the system. Chandra observatory is the best we can do at the moment... but it seems they still like to measure things in Crabs! But in the mean time, this would be cool to get some photo's of this happening!
*creepy smile* black hole sun, black hole sun
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Gaensicke and colleagues envision two scenarios that might explain the object. In one, a carbon-rich star gets too close to a middle- or heavy-weight black hole, which tears the star apart. Some of this material is absorbed by the black hole, and some is blasted away in a flare that was eventually seen from Earth as SCP 06F6.
I'm not educated in astrophysics and everytime I read something like this I wonder, how does anything manage to get "blasted away" from a black hole? I was under the impression anything that got close to it was absorbed?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The star says "Shine shine shine!"
The black hole says "NOM NOM NOM!!!!"
"I hope you know how very lucky you are to know me, because I am so incredibly incredible."
Aside from all the "This comment breached our terms of use and has been removed" messages, most of the comments are by kooks or people who clearly misunderstood the article (like the guy who saw a 2s flare in Delphinus).
Yes, I AM out of my Vulcan mind.
The article calls it the 'firefly event'. It wasn't a black hole. It was the reavers.
My webcomic
in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
No data, no cry
I don't seem to grasp that black holes can become mobile. I can not imagine something would be able to exert enough force on the black hole to actually accelerate it.
...they already explained this in the new Star Trek movie
Looks like the inhabitants of the nearest planet just switched on their brand-new LHC...
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Heh. The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know...Unless you're an asshole or a teenager. In the grand scheme, we're still just scratching the surface. There are so many things we do not understand.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Considering the bulk of all money paid in the US health care has created some of the wealthiest people in the world, its clear there is no competition. In a world were a pack of [what is essentially] cotton (~$40 wholesale) can cost upwards of $600, its clear there is no competition. One of the purposes of government is to stimulate business. Since health care in America has run amok and they clearly do not want to be forced to compete (they'd rather rape every US citizen while laughing all the way to the bank), they've left no other option.
If you're angry and the government, first and foremost you need to be angry at the business who have done nothing but rape, pillage, and plundered every US citizen.
om nom nom nom!
A whole star? Someone should Cc: this article to my girlfriend.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Now THAT's news!
We are in the earliest stages of undesrtanding how the universe works. For the first 8-10 thousand years we have looked what that which is in our universe and how it functions within our universe. Only in the last 3000 years have we started to look at how the universe (or if you prefer reality) itself works.
Based on our understanding the very fundamental laws of our universe at some point has changed. The laws, as we call them, 5 seconds before the big bang may have been very different then at the time of the big bang and vastly different a billion years afterwards.
We look to oddities like black holes to try and grasp and dredge out what additional laws that may exist to better understand how to exist within a system of laws. We must be ever so careful though as we go forward in collecting and looking at data. Who knows, perhaps we will find a white hole adding mass to our universe potentially signalling an escape from heat death or the big rip. Perhaps the graviton will be found... perhaps not.
The question all this begs is crucial to the core of our own existence, and is the harbinger to the meaning of life. The question must be asked after observing this article:
How could we miss an opportunity for a sexual joke with this?
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Holy crap, what's with the dianetics.org banner on slashdot?
American swallows hamburger
Japanese swallows sushi
Lion swallows GNU (eeeh... gnu)
I guess Samantha Carter's plan worked!
FTFA:
...the object sits some 2 billion light years away...
I guess plastic surgery and short hair go a long ways towards making you look a whole lot younger.
after the original. Posted less than an hour apart, right next to each other on the front page!
Has Bing Already Overtaken Yahoo? Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 08, @08:54AM
Black Hole Swallows Star Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 08, @09:38AM
And Taco posted both of them. Getting old, Taco?
There's nothing in the article about Paris Hilton.
Are these black hole swallows starring in Capistrano? Are there any chickadees?
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I'm guessing either a warp core breach.. or there was red matter involved.. just a guess...
The scientists gave a number of possible interpretations. The journalist who wrote the article, or his editor, picked the most interesting-sounding explanation for the thrust of the article.
I think anyone familiar with Slashdot summaries should be aware of this distinction.
Although I do see your point about TFS on /. ;)
Nick
When that star enters into the black hole, it would probably go out of the black holes butt, and the outcome would be a Black Star lol.
Clearly the star was going to go supernova and threaten the entire galaxy, so Ambassador Spock took one for the team by dropping some red matter into it...
Undeliverable: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: girlfriend@drinkypoo.com
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
Quoth the conclusion of the referenced paper:
"These possibilities, combined with the observation that the
disrupted object be a carbon-rich star, rather than a normal
main sequence one appear to make the case for tidal disruption
somewhat contrived. Nonetheless, with only one object, and
thus an essentially unconstrained rate and space density for
such events, it remains a possibility."
So, while tidal disruption is a possibility, it is not the favored scenario.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Quoting this for your attention just in case (once again) your filter software fails to pick up on a communication whose existence your Guild would prefer to ignore:
The thing is, they DIDN'T see a black hole swallowing a star. They saw a massive burst of radiation. But they describe NOT what they actually observed, but their interpretation of what they observed instead. Are there no other possible sources for massive bursts of radiation than black holes swallowing stars? Given the aberrant numbers of high energy particles entering our star system, I would say it's premature indeed. Same with the neutron stars, or pulsars allegedly being stars that "rotate faster than dentist drills."
Can it be any more clear that the indigenous technosavvies of this backward planet are about to see through the ruses you have been feeding them, and recognize the artifacts of your warp ship accelerations for what they are? How long do you think you can preserve that foolish fiction of a "Hubble Constant Universe" you've been encouraging them to accept?
Would it really be that costly for you to exercise a little more control over your thrust vectors? Yes, it would cut into the profits of each voyage by several tenths of a percent. But that is a pittance to pay for this unique opportunity to study a pre-Warp and pre-Contact civilization during that critical period just prior to its recognition of the bubble distortion at its heliopause. We've only had one such opportunity before. Need I remind you of how your Guild mucked up that one?
Will
Unless you're an asshole... In the grand scheme, we're still just scratching the surface.
We're just scratching the surface of our assholes? Hey, I mean we haven't discovered any working grand unified theory yet, but at least we're TRYING!
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
so CmdrTaco's gaping rectum swallowed a little boy's ruby-colored starfruit?
BELCH!
Whew! This water sure is cold!
Well played, AC.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Based on the title, I thought Eddie Murphy found another tranny prostitute.
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
best. comment. ever.
The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.
It all fits...all that carbon are the poor inhabitants of Alderaan.
...Hey, I mean we haven't discovered any working grand unified theory yet, but at least we're TRYING!...
Well at least the scientists have not yet discovered such a theory, but the theologians have. It is called the "God Theory". That theory says that God made and runs the universe whether you believe that or not. This theory is not very palatable to us philosophically, because if there REALLY is such a God, we instinctively feel responsible to him and that is discomforting because most of us want to be independent and responsible to no one except ourselves.
All theory is gray
an current
I always used to be able to spot foreigners by their misuse of "an" in front of words beginning with hard consonants. Now stupid Americans who think it makes them look cool are adopting this shitty overseas grammar butchery of American English...
We all mastered a, an, and the in 3rd or 4th grade. If not, we didn't proceed to the next grade in school. Why, for the love of Pete, are thousands upon thousands of very educated and intelligent U.S. people all of a sudden forgetting these rules which they have used for all of their adult lives?
Is this a more subtle version of ultra-liberal American TV and radio 'journalists' adopting British accents, in the hope it will somehow give them credibility they haven't actually earned?
More fantastic examples of proper usage of the article 'an':
"Dad, can I have an bicycle for my birthday?"
"That's not an lion, that's an kangaroo."
"Hay, let's fly an jetliner into an skyscraper and an Pentagon!"