Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Black Hole Plays Pool With Plasma

Posted by timothy on from the always-bet-on-the-black-hole dept.

the monolith writes: The Hubble Space Telescope is revealing that there is a pool game in progress, with a long shot being played out on a cosmic scale. It appears that the first recorded shot was observed in 1992, while subsequent canon shots were recorded between 1994 an 2014. In actuality, the shots are plasma, the current player is a black hole, and the playing surface is galactic space itself. The BBC has a story on the observations and interpretations, while the journal Nature has the paywalled in-depth article. The current score is unknown, and one can only hope that there were no life forms involved in the collision.

27 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. This sounds familiar... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Oh, yeah - Cock-a-doodly-doo!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  2. Not pool as we know it by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

    Every pool game I have ever played was played on what was essentially a two-dimensional surface.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:Not pool as we know it by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Well, it's hard to make a 3D analog requiring gravity without causing some other issues, so a pool table is probably the best way to explain it.

      It's a freakin' black hole ... to say it's nothing like we know is a bit of an understatement.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Not pool as we know it by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

      While the playing surface is usually 2-D, the balls have always moved in 3-D in the games I've played. When the players are bad, the balls arc through the air to land on the floor/go through a window/etc. When the players are good, use of english means that the balls are accomplishing specific rotations that influence the other pieces with a decidedly non-2D physics model.

      So if these plasma balls aren't on a 2-D plane, it's highly probable that this black hole just isn't very good. Most black holes are more subtle, putting a spin on their galaxies and taking their time with the collisions.

    3. Re:Not pool as we know it by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      Thinking this through:

      - Straight shots are 2D. No english, just shots.

      - English introduces the third dimension? Fine. Using a little english, for example hitting the cue to the side of the rail to spin the object ball toward the rail improves your shot, but the balls are still on the table... 3D? Not really.

      - Hopping the ball, however, is one way to get to the object ball you need when it is blocked (the old behind the 8-ball problem). This becomes 4D?

      Wow. Pool is more fun than I knew. Shame it's work.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    4. Re:Not pool as we know it by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      Using english for side-spin is 2-D, as you're still on the plane of motion. But you can also add topspin or bottom spin without hopping the ball, which involves rotation through the third dimension, thus making it more than a two-dimensional maneuver.

      And yeah; any useful pool move also takes time into account unless it's a straight shot, so until you go hopping the ball, you're in 3 dimensions (x, y, and t).

    5. Re: Not pool as we know it by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      No. Topspin/backspin change direction, but not dimension. Time is not a significant consideration for 99% of players. The 1% pocketing more than one ball on a shot regularly may have that problem occasionally. Three-cushion billiards more so.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  3. Yeah. Only scored thirty points too by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read of one planet in the seventh dimension got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole, killed ten billion people.

    1. Re:Yeah. Only scored thirty points too by Zaphod-AVA · · Score: 1

      Total Madness!

    2. Re:Yeah. Only scored thirty points too by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Only scored thirty points too. ;)

  4. Re:fuk you dice. by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    ...which is another reason why everyone's moving to git.

  5. Writers like this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    shouldn't be allowed to write about science.

  6. Heresy by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    It appears that the first recorded shot was observed in 1992, while subsequent canon shots were recorded between 1994 an 2014.

    Every true beleiver knows only the first shot is canon. The rest are all apocrypha.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  7. Re:fuk you dice. by Sowelu · · Score: 1

    [citation needed]

  8. Re:Clickbait Science by Sowelu · · Score: 1

    As long as it doesn't turn into the "History" Channel.

  9. Black hole named ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... 'Fats'.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  10. Re:Clickbait Science by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    As long as it doesn't turn into the "History" Channel.

    You mean the Alien Hitler Pawn Restoration Channel?

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  11. canon shots...? by rgbatduke · · Score: 1

    Hmmm, so either we're dealing with a black hole photography nut, or else a black hole that really, really cares about religious doctrine. Enough to drive them to drinking or to shoot somebody, not clear which.

    Canon shots. Yet another activity atheists can't participate in.

    --
    Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
  12. And somewhere.. by Rinikusu · · Score: 1

    Black Hole's mother is chastizing it to "stop playing with your food!"

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
  13. Cosmic Billiards? by StikyPad · · Score: 2

    What's with the cutesy headline? "Shock collision in black hole plasma jet," is pretty sensational on its own, and actually tells us something. Maybe more people would have read the article and we'd have a discussion here instead of crickets.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    1. Re:Cosmic Billiards? by Livius · · Score: 1

      "Shock collision in black hole plasma jet,"

      ...is actually a way better headline. Pool is (nearly always) a game of skill, not violence.

  14. Re:fuk you dice. by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://arstechnica.com/informa...

  15. Lister Did It First by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

    Actually I saw Lister make this shot in 1991.

    https://youtu.be/YW3UyJiOvHY?t...

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
  16. Saw this in my kitchen sink by boojumbadger · · Score: 1

    The video looked just like water droplets from my dripping tap gliding down the Teflon pizza pan. Bigger drops would push through the grease more slowly and subsequent, smaller droplets would chase through their slipstream, colliding to massive effect.

    1. Re:Saw this in my kitchen sink by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Your sink is the article's subject, God

  17. Couple of observations by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 1

    In any decent analogy, the black hole ought to be a pocket if playing pool. Perhaps, they should have compared the behavior to one of those billiard games played on tables with no pockets.

    My other comment is that BH is a really slow player. I am not particularly speedy myself, but playing since 1992 and not yet finished a single frame ... jeesh!

  18. Artillery? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    In the slowest conflict in galactic history?