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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)."
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.
If the story's boring it's the writer's fault. A good writer can write "how to mow a lawn" and make it interesting. Bad writing and boring teachers are what turns school kids off on learning, and most people off on science.
Free Martian Whores!
As for my story, it is, of course, about both things - the new theory about Sagittarius A*, and the reporting about the theory - because both are relevant to me.
You're welcome not to care about either, though. Just try not to impute motives to other people without justification, lest you, yourself be judged a cynical troll with way too much time on its grubby little hands.
Just sayin' ...
Check out my novel.
Similarly, bad pay and zero prestige are what turn interesting and talented people off teaching.
"I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p