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Milky Way's Black Hole Wasn't Always Such a Wimp

scibri writes "Sagittarius A*, the dormant supermassive black hole that lies at the center of our galaxy, was much more active not that long ago. Astronomers using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have picked up some faint gamma-ray signals that suggest Sagittarius A* was emitting a pair of powerful gamma-ray jets like other galactic black holes as recently as 20,000 years ago (arXiv paper). If our black hole was more active in the past, it could explain why Sagittarius A* seems to be growing about 1,000 times too slowly for it to have reached its current mass of about four million solar masses since the Galaxy formed about 13.2 billion years ago."

6 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Too Much Space Turkey? by Scarletdown · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just more evidence that eating turkey makes you sleepy. It would appear that our galaxy's super massive black hole ate too much space turkey, and now it is having a nice long nap.

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  2. Re:dormant black hole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    it's only dormant because Chuck Norris told it to relax

  3. Re:Weight of a teaspoon amount by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't know, none of our "teaspoon on a rope" measuring devices have been successfully pulled back out past the event horizon.

    On an unrelated note, we need more interns.

  4. Asterisk by Megane · · Score: 4, Funny

    It wasn't always such a wimp, but then it got caught doing steroids, so it had to have an asterisk after its name.

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    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  5. I dare you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh sure, it's easy to call it a wimp from way out here on the outskirts of the galaxy. But I bet you wouldn't call it a wimp if it were right in your face!

  6. Re:WWKKT? What would Kim K. think? by SJHillman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Al Gore went back in time 20,000 years (and you thought he only invented the Internet) to begin the process of Galactic Cooling so counteract the effects of Global Warming.