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Spinning Black Hole's Edge Rotates At Nearly the Speed of Light

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-the-black-hole dept.

astroengine writes "Astronomers have directly measured the spin of a black hole for the first time by detecting the mind-bending relativistic effects that warp space-time at the very edge of its event horizon. By monitoring X-ray emissions from iron ions (iron atoms with some electrons missing) trapped in the black hole's accretion disk, the rapidly-rotating inner edge of the disk of hot material has provided direct information about how fast the black hole is spinning. Astronomers used NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) — that was launched into Earth orbit in June 2012 — and the European observatory XMM-Newton measured X-ray radiation as a tool to directly infer the spin of NGC 1365's black hole. 'What excites me is the fact that we are able to do this for the very massive black holes at the centers of galaxies but we can also make the same measurement for black holes in our galaxy ... black holes that resulted from the explosion of a star ... The fact we can extend this from billions of solar masses to 10 solar masses is pretty cool,' Fiona Harrison, professor of physics and astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., and principal investigator of the NuSTAR mission, told Discovery News."

7 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. know your audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    i love how this summary explains what an ion is, but assumes i know the definitions of black hole, x-ray, and solar mass. great writing, folks!

    1. Re:know your audience by oodaloop · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course, it doesn't define accretion, earth, relativistic, radiation, mass, electron, or spin either. If you don't know anything about physics, go post on 4chan or something.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:know your audience by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Funny

      Till I read the summary I thought ion is a iron with the letter r removed. Now I know what is removed is not r but electrons. Got it.

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      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    3. Re:know your audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      No no, a mass is what happens in a Church you heathen.

    4. Re:know your audience by maxwell+demon · · Score: 4, Funny

      No no, a mass is what happens in a Church you heathen.

      Ah, now I understand why the Higgs particle is the god particle: It is causing what happens in a Church!

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  2. Re:My thought... by Talderas · · Score: 3, Funny

    They are obviously made of strawberries and unicorns.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  3. Re:WRONG! by thechemic · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had a Honda Civic that could go the speed of light. It sucked because nothing ever showed up in the rear view mirror.

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.