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Supermassive Black Holes Not So Big After All

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the puck-will-be-disappointed dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Supermassive black holes are between 2 and 10 times less massive than previously thought, according to new calculations published by German astrophysicists (abstract)."

2 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Math? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I'm also bothered when I hear "5 times more". Is it 6 times as much or 5 times as much?

  2. Re:Math? by mangu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The translation from "two times less massive" to "less massive by a factor of two" is pretty straightforward and easily understood...

    The real problem happens in the opposite direction. A star that's 200% as massive as the sun is smaller than one that's 150% more massive than the sun, but many people will give the wrong answer if asked.