Slashdot Mirror
NASA Uncovers Millions of New Black Holes
coondoggie writes "NASA today said its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite has unearthed a 'bonanza of new-found supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.' NASA said the latest discoveries help astronomers better understand how galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together."
The news was released in a press conference, and io9 has a comprehensive write-up about everything that was covered, including the Q&A session. Pretty pictures here.
Quick, cover them back up, before they cool off!
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
So what they're saying is... they've found teenagers.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'are there a million black holes waiting to hoover up all sentient life from the universe or are there 100 million black holes waiting to hoover up all sentient life from the universe? ' Well to tell you the truth, in all the chaos I myself can't remember how many black holes I made. So let me ask you, punk. Do you feel lucky ?
I'll bet these have been around longer than we have
How does it jibe for balancing things without using 'dark matter/energy'?
Not well.
These SMBHs are in the centers of galaxies, and piling up more mass at the center of a galaxy doesn't explain the problem of flat galactic rotation curves. The mass needs to be in and surrounding the galaxy, which is why the non-exotic DM theory is called "MACHOs" as in MAssive Compact Halo Objects -- because it'd have to be in the halo.
It's even worse for Dark Energy, since extra mass would actually have the opposite effect that DE has, pushing the universe closer to the Big Crunch scenario. It certainly would not explain accelerating expansion.
The enemies of Democracy are
Look during the day, when there's more light to see by.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Hence why Gnome's logo is a bare foot...
It doesn't. Basically the reasoning for dark matter is this :
Under Newtonian or Einsteinian physics, galaxies should rotate a lot slower on the outside, and quicker in the middle than than they actually do (a little like our solar system behaves). No one can explain why they do not, satisfactorily yet.
Dark matter is an explanation which proposes that there is undetectable matter causing the gravity interference which does explain the mechanics of galactic movements. Trouble is, we haven't got a hold of dark matter yet, so although it's an explanation, it's not concrete by any means. If you want a definite explanation, you're probably going to have to go to your priest.
Black holes don't fit. There aren't that many black holes, and despite the name, they are observable. If there were enough black holes to cause galaxies to rotate like they do, we'd have seen them already.
They can be found in a number of ways...
They give off something called Bekenstein-Hawking radiation because they are sucking up half of spontaneously generated particle pairs - leaving the other half (that would normally disappear back into the sucked up particle) to spray out into space.
They can be 'seen' by the gravitational lensing they produce when you try to look at the background behind them. (And most of space isn't black, it's full of bright objects and lots of microwave radiation.)