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Giant Black Hole At Milky Way's Core Stays Slim
thomst writes "A team of researchers from Harvard and MIT announced at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society a new theoretical model of how the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way consumes gas from surrounding star clusters, based on a million seconds of observation by the orbital Chandra X-ray telescope. Astronomers had previously believed that the object, known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star') consumed only around one percent of the gases it stripped from the star clusters around it, but the new model reduces its consumption to 0.01 percent (i.e. — two orders of magnitude). Physorg.com's uncredited reporter gets the story right, while space.com's Andrea Thomspon clearly doesn't understand the mechanism behind the phenomenon (essentially, thermal conduction from the extremely-hot accretion disk heats the surrounding gas, causing it to expand, and thus move away from Sagittarius A*'s gravity well)."
Then it would be Sagittarius A* eh?
No brain, no pain.
Harvard and MIT announced at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Does this mean there is a President of Astrophysics?
Well it looks like this sucks... a little. *cues CSI:Miami Theme music!*
This needs more cowbell!!!
So is this story about the black hole, or about the fact that one place got the story right, while another author got confused? Sounds like a hit job to me, and probably better ways to fulfill vendettas.. Just sayin'...
A million seconds is about 11.5 days.
Actually, the Space.com story does mention the correct mechanism ("It also creates pressure that helps some stellar winds avoid the black hole's gravitational grasp altogether."), but also a second one ("The conduction causes some of the heat in the gas to travel outwards, reducing the strength of the radiation that results from the black hole's consumption.") that sounds a bit odd. Physorg doesn't credit a reporter because they're printing a CfA-authored story (as evidenced by the "Provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics").
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
I know this is slightly off topic, but in my opinion the words "Milky Way" and "Slim" should not be used in the same sentence.
"I am Andrea Thomspon, you insensitive clod".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
After reading that yawner of a story, I am SO FUCKING GLAD I never pursued astro research after that summer of my junior year in college.
>> essentially, thermal conduction from the extremely-hot accretion disk heats the surrounding gas, causing it to expand, and thus move away from Sagittarius A*'s gravity well
If there is a dense enough concentration of gas that thermal expansion (i.e. pressure) can keep it out of the gravity well, then is there enough density to actually call that an atmosphere? It's an interesting thought... although going from "atmosphere" to anything else (life, etc.) has about a billion hurdles in-between.
I would assume that in the disc there is a range of concentration/pressure, but never thought it would reach/exceed our atmospheric pressure. That would be cool.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
To Andrea Thomspon's credit, Astrophysics is very difficult. It's my guess that the source material (i.e. press release, article in a science journal, etc...) was neither well written or clearly explained.
"What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon? Decent people... shouldn't think too much about that." - Prokhor Zakharov, For I Have Tasted The Fruit
So women tend to like chocolate and telling them that they are slim. Milky Way's are made out of chocolate. It is all becoming clear now.
The Milky Way is on a diet because it is right after New Year's and after the holidays.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Eleven and a half days is a lot more understandable. Who wrote that, Star Trek's Data?
Actually it's 11.574074074074074074074074074074 days, if Data's watching.
Free Martian Whores!
I think I figured out WHY there are galactic voids. The voids used to full of Galaxies ie. "The Missing Mass" that no one could find. If a galaxy's black hole gets too big it triggers the collapse of the Galaxy in question into a violent Quasar and it disappears from this universe within a few million years. The Mass is then removed from this universe as it tunnels itself into a another universal where it expands into it's own "Big Bang". The mass that is constantly being removed makes it appear the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Of course this process weeded out 90% of the Galaxies that were formed after the big bang and we are one of the few lucky survivors.. These survivors ended up with galactic black holes that were big enough to "throw off enough mass" to prevent them from going "critical mass" which would remove them and their host galaxies from the universe.
There, I have just solved the "Missing Mass", "Accelerating Expansion of the Universe", and "Dark Matter" problems in cosmology, I would like my prize now.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
The discovery that black holes can reduce their gas consumption of two orders of magnitude should help car makers to build better SUVs.
WhaHuhhhh?????
Get read for the know-nothings to make stupid posts about nothing at all. Fantastic!
Here is the scientific paper.
Find free books.
Seriously. How can you skip a joke like that? It's reaching out and grabbing you, pulling you in to never let go and never let anything escape.
PS: How much more do I have to type to get past the lameness filter?
>"Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star')"
So... it isn't a star but they call it A-Star?
Perhaps "The Saggitarius Object Formerly Known As A-Star"...
Perhaps someone can answer this question:
Will there ever be a Fred A*?
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Is that CNN's Andrea Thompson who was on Babylon 5? You'd think she'd know about thing or two black holes.
"...known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Hole')...." Made a lot more sense when they talked about the accretion disk around the black-hole...
Take look at this: http://tinyurl.com/yfqbxhk Haramein, who has spent his lifetime researching fields of physics from quantum theory to relativistic equations and cosmology, will lead you along a fascinating discussion geared to a layman's understanding of the fundamental nature of the universe and creation that includes black holes, gravitational forces, dimensions, and the very structure of space itself - all of which are integral parts of his now-complete Unified Field Theory.
It's eating a Milky Way the size of a galaxy and it stays slim? Must have a terrific metabolism.
It's useful to know which popular science sites get it right and which don't. I prefer sciencedaily.com so far, but I'm always willing to give a chance to other secondary sources, provided they know enough to accurately summarize what's published in Nature, Science, and other peer-reviewed but costly research journals.
"I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p
"known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star')" Oh, horse puckey! I did radio astronomy for a lotta years. Most folks refer to that source as "Sag-A", although a few folks tried "Saj-A".
This is why exercise is good for you, people. Look at all the stuff its eating and it still manages to stay slim.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
Andrea got it right. Try reading her piece a little more carefully. Please tell me that you assumed she was wrong for some reason other than her sex. Also please tell me you trashed her without bothering to take a careful reading for some reason other than her sex. I hope it is not, "Gosh, everybody knows girls can't do math and science, so why waste the time to reconsider a hasty judgement." (I like judgement, so don't rush to a hasty judgment that I can't spell just because I do not follow all of Webster's peeves, crotchets, and quirks.)