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Monster Black Holes May Lurk All Around Us (yahoo.com)

Taco Cowboy quotes a report from Yahoo News: Astronomers have stumbled upon a supermassive black hole in an unexpected corner of the Universe, implying these galactic monsters are much more common than once thought, a study said Wednesday. The giant, with an estimated mass 17 billion times that of our Sun, was discovered in a relative desert, astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in the journal Nature. "While finding a gigantic black hole in a massive galaxy in a crowded area of the Universe is to be expected -- like running across a skyscraper in Manhattan -- it seemed less likely they could be found in the Universe's small towns," said a university statement. Big, star-rich galaxies where supermassive black holes had previously been found, are very rare. Smaller ones like the NGC 1600 galaxy housing the newly-discovered whopper, are much more common, but were not previously thought to be appropriate host. "So the question now is: 'Is this the tip of an iceberg?'" said study co-author Chung-Pei Ma. "Maybe there are a lot more monster black holes out there that don't live in a skyscraper in Manhattan, but in a tall building somewhere in the Midwestern plains." The largest supermassive black hole spotted to date tipped the scales at about 21 billion solar masses, said the study authors.

126 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. A huge hig-mass object that suck up everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Was found in an empty space... duh!

    1. Re: A huge hig-mass object that suck up everything by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Funny

      Black holes do *not* suck up stuff.

      Are you implying that black ho's spit?

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    2. Re: A huge hig-mass object that suck up everything by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      . . .

      I think you might want to consider the same

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    3. Re:A huge hig-mass object that suck up everything by Maritz · · Score: 1

      They don't do that. Other than that, great comment.

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      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  2. Missed the important part of the story by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Funny

    it seemed less likely they could be found in the Universe's small towns," said a university statement

    Well that's great and all, but it misses the most important point of this entire story - what kind of shirt was the spokesman wearing when he released the statement? We already know, from empirical experience, that this fashion statement overshadows anything that might have been said or any legitimate human achievement that may have occurred. Up to and including announcing that HUMANITY LANDED A SPACE PROBE ON A GODDAMNED COMET.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Missed the important part of the story by dave420 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      People can concentrate on more than one thing at once. You are possibly an exception, which would explain your apparent confusion. Yes, the reaction from some was over the top, but that does nothing to change the fact that someone made a stupid mistake and tarnished the image of their organisation by not being as professional as decorum would expect. And none of this has anything to do with a specific piece of research.

      I get it - you are clearly rather old (or your mentality is, or both), rather grumpy, and out of touch with the world around you. You see all this talk of people trying to be better to each other, and you realise that will never be you, so you get angry with it. Deep-down you know you are wrong, and that's where the anger comes from. So much anger. What a waste.

    2. Re:Missed the important part of the story by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Huh? Pure psychological projection on your part, pal. I'm just reminding everyone of what happened and how shameful it was, you don't have to get all butthurt about it and start making wild projections.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. Re:Trump will save us ! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Trump is an Orange Hole

  4. Black hole in the astronomical desert by wevets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe the black hole they found used to be in the center of a super massive galaxy, but had already swallowed up most of the galaxy so there's not much left, leaving the impression that its a super massive black hole in the center of a not-so-massive galaxy?

    1. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      When will people stop thinking of black holes as giant vacuum cleaner? They're not. What they are is gigantic masses concentrated in a relatively small space creating big gravity. Other objects massive enough (i.e. stars) spin around them, exactly like planets spin around the sun but don't fall into it.

    2. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Stuff doesn't just get 'sucked' into a black hole. That's not how gravity works. The planets orbiting the sun are not slowly falling into the sun either, and the moon is not slowly falling into the earth. Once something has a stable orbit it tends to stay in that orbit.

    3. Re: Black hole in the astronomical desert by johnsmithperson123 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps in a densely populated star cluster, I suppose. In one of the denser ones a small one could grow relatively quickly.

    4. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by brantondaveperson · · Score: 2

      Exactly. Getting 'sucked into' a sun is just as bad for your health as falling into a black hole, but we don't get all freaked out about those. Well, unless we were in a ship that was getting uncomfortably close to a star, in which case we'd probably be becoming worried.

      Black holes do sound pretty cool though, so you can imagine why people might make up stories about them.

    5. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Bengie · · Score: 2

      Ignoring that BHs mostly blow what they "suck in" away with their jets, anything not really close to the BH will be pushed away. The reason most super massive blackholes are almost an exact small percentage, not a random small percentage, of their host galaxy is because they can only pull in so much mass.

    6. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Koen+Lefever · · Score: 1

      the moon is not slowly falling into the earth. Once something has a stable orbit it tends to stay in that orbit.

      That reminds me of how my first year physics professor (Roger Van Geen) explained the orbit of the moon using vectors: "it is constantly falling beside the earth."

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    7. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      When will people stop thinking of black holes as giant vacuum cleaner? They're not. What they are is gigantic masses concentrated in a relatively small space creating big gravity. Other objects massive enough (i.e. stars) spin around them, exactly like planets spin around the sun but don't fall into it.

      As the center of gravity gains mass, formerly stable orbits become unstable and the orbiting bodies fall into the gravity well. This can result in chain reaction which seemingly acts like a giant vacuum cleaner.

      Other objects massive enough (i.e. stars) spin around them, exactly like planets spin around the sun but don't fall into it.

      Orbits are not a function of mass, anything from an electron to a small black hole can orbit around a supermassive black hole and have the exact same orbit.

      exactly like planets spin around the sun but don't fall into it

      Except the proto-planets that did get sucked up in the Sun while our solar system was being formed.

    8. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      Once something has a stable orbit it tends to stay in that orbit

      There is no such thing as a stable orbit, orbiting bodies are either moving towards or away from the object they are orbiting. In order to have a stable orbit the gravitational force and all other forces on the orbiting body would have to exactly cancel out. This is why GPS satellites broadcast their corrected position which they get from ground stations, they can get close to a stable orbit but can not perfectly achieve it.

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      t=Money
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    9. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Getting 'sucked into' a sun is just as bad for your health as falling into a black hole,

      Doesn't that depend on whether you're wearing sun block, or not?

    10. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Stuff doesn't just get 'sucked' into a black hole. That's not how gravity works. The planets orbiting the sun are not slowly falling into the sun either, and the moon is not slowly falling into the earth. Once something has a stable orbit it tends to stay in that orbit.

      Well yes actually they are slowly falling in, the real question is are we talking about falling in over a period of hundreds of years or trillions of years. We know given enough time everything in orbit around something else is going to tidally lock up and decay into less and less thingys, until there is only one thingy; what we don't know is if the Universe will last that long.

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      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    11. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Much like how Jupiter doesn't suck in asteroids?

    12. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      That's not really how orbits work. A stable orbit can remain stable indefinitely, and some things in orbits actually recede from what they're orbiting (the moon is actually slowly receding away from Earth).

      --
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    13. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Maritz · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't do that. A black hole is not a magical suck-everything-up machine. It's just a massive object. If your orbit around it is high, you basically won't ever be sucked in.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    14. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Maritz · · Score: 2

      You can gain a whole lot of mass but you're up against the inverse square law. That gravitational 'force' (yes it's really just a geometrical distortion of spacetime) falls away rapidly with distance. The distance is what keeps those remote objects safe.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    15. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Well, in theory an artificial satellite like that should be able to maintain an almost perfectly stable orbit because it can use thrust to do corrections. (Of course, the fuel for the thrusters will run out eventually...)

      Natural bodies can't do that, so eventually they're either going to collide or spin away.

    16. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Maritz · · Score: 1

      People think black holes are giant vacuum cleaners because that is what conventional physics says they are -- things come too close (cross the event horizon) and become imprisoned in the SMBH. So you are authoritatively saying this doesn't happen? No, well then we are only talking degree -- newbs think SMBH's suck a lot, and you think they suck a little. FWIW, "you" (i.e. conventional physics) have your work cut out for you to explain why things don't get sucked in. I imagine you will trot out something to do with "curved space orbits" but implicit in that must be that every single thing orbiting the SMBH manages to stay outside the event horizon. My question #1 (given that SMBH size (diameter) is related to their SMass) is how does everything know exactly where that event horizon is? And question #2 when the SMBH grows in size, how do the objects orbiting the closest not end up now inside the event horizon? My own thoughts on black holes.

      A black hole has exactly the same gravity as any object of the same mass. Nothing magical happens to the gravitation once the object becomes smaller than the Schwarzchild radius.

      That last bit doesn't make much sense to me. You honestly think he's saying black holes don't suck in more stuff as they grow? Yes, they do. They also eventually tend to stop. That's why some quasars are active and some are docile.

      There is a simple equation that links the black hole's area and its mass.

      I had a look at the blog. Are you some kinda anti-Einstein crank..?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    17. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Galaxies mate. You've got stars with orbits stable over 13 billion years. What, exactly, is your idea of long term?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    18. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Before you talk about stability, you have to state what you think is stable. You don't think the Earth is on a stable orbit around the sun? Hasn't fallen into it yet has it? In fact, it will be swallowed up long before it has a chance to. We're not talking about stability like some kind of perfect circle.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    19. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by budgenator · · Score: 1

      The Moon orbits the Earth in a prograde motion so the the tidal forces from the Earth's rotation accelerate the Moon's orbital velocity, while shortening the length of the Earth's day. Once the Earth's day matches the lunar orbital period, the death spiral will begin.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    20. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      The earth is not in a stable orbit it is moving away from the sun at 15cm a year. Do you consider a spiral a stable orbit?

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      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    21. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As the center of gravity gains mass, formerly stable orbits become unstable and the orbiting bodies fall into the gravity well. This can result in chain reaction which seemingly acts like a giant vacuum cleaner.

      One could argue the same thing about a star or even a planet. If enough stuff falls into any astronomical body, its mass could increase and orbits could destabilize.

      Black holes are no different in this regard, hence the reason why it's weird to think of them as special kinds of "vacuum cleaners" that are different from other celestial bodies.

      Except the proto-planets that did get sucked up in the Sun while our solar system was being formed.

      Terms like "sucked up" are the problem. Suction is a specific physical thing created by a vacuum. In that case, the material that is "sucked up" is actually pushed into something else by the fluid pressure difference. It really doesn't make sense to apply this to proto-planets, since they were not pushed into the Sun by some external pressure.

      Rather, they did not have sufficient orbital velocity to avoid falling into the gravity well. Using terminology like "vacuum cleaner" or "suction" is a really bad metaphor because it implies all sorts of things that aren't part of the physical scenario in question.

    22. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by sexconker · · Score: 1

      You can gain a whole lot of mass but you're up against the inverse square law. That gravitational 'force' (yes it's really just a geometrical distortion of spacetime) falls away rapidly with distance. The distance is what keeps those remote objects safe.

      How can it be "just" a distortion of spacetime and a " 'force' "? There needs to be some actual force to do the distorting of spacetime. You don't get to put quotation marks around "force" and parenthetically claim that gravity is not a force.

    23. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by wevets · · Score: 1

      OK. Then how does a small black hole become a "super massive black hole?" Did it just come into being when God created the universe 6K years ago? And what's with recent multiple observations of asteroids striking Jupiter? You'd think that our solar system would have settled into stable orbits by now. It's been over 4 billion years after all. Maybe I used the wrong term in "sucking", but you know what I mean. Maybe gravity has something to do with it.

    24. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      Orbital stability is determined by deviation from initial orbit, an increasing or decreasing orbit radius can not satisfy that requirement. It's not what I think is orbital stability is it's how orbital stability is defined.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    25. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by slew · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can gain a whole lot of mass but you're up against the inverse square law. That gravitational 'force' (yes it's really just a geometrical distortion of spacetime) falls away rapidly with distance. The distance is what keeps those remote objects safe.

      How can it be "just" a distortion of spacetime and a " 'force' "? There needs to be some actual force to do the distorting of spacetime. You don't get to put quotation marks around "force" and parenthetically claim that gravity is not a force.

      The human understanding of the physics behind gravity is not a settled science.

      One popular school of thought (called general relativity), that gravity is simply a result of mysterious property of an object called "mass" distorting the fabric of space time so it only appears as a "force" with a field. With this school of thought, you can also think about the strange "force-like" dynamics (e.g, attraction or the change in momentum over time) we observe with gravity fields are really an artifact of our frame of reference (we assume that space-time is not distorted) but in the space-time, really nothing than distorted space time). There is no "force" exhibited by matter that distorts surrounding space-time, but the distortion of space-time is an emergent property of mass (and strangely energy).

      However, we know that general relativity is inconsistent with our current understanding of quantum mechanics, so it is probably "wrong", so another school of thought is that analogous to other fields (e.g., electromagnetic fields), the apparently gravitationnal dynamics can be explained by the exchange of particles (or virtual particles) which have been coined as "gravitons". These gravitons would work similarly to how photons mediate the electromagnetic force (and presumably would exhibit wave particle duality like photons).

      Of course that often begs the question of what is mysterious mass like property of an object? Some speculate that it is merely parts of an object interacting with a scalar "higgs-field" (it has to be scalar-like, or the "mass-effect" would be different in different directions) caused by an exchange of higgs particles.

      How this might all relate back to the first school of thought is called the search for the grand unifying theory. If you figure that one out, a Nobel prize in physics awaits... ;^)

    26. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      I get your point, but a black hole with a mass of 21 billion suns is a decent fraction of the mass of a galaxy, isn't it? Last I checked they said there were around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way and/or it weighs around 100 billion solar masses. So a smaller galaxy with a black hole that massive has put quite a bit of its mass in one place.

      This doesn't justify the grandparent's claim, which is off by several orders of magnitude, but the general idea that a supermassive black hole may have consumed a big chunk of a small galaxy doesn't seem like a wrong way to describe this situation.

    27. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      What about black hole makes you think of giant vacuum cleaners? The name implies nothing of the sort, and physics doesn't either. If the earth were to suddenly become a black hole, nothing with regards to the orbits of celestial objects would change. The same is true for the sun, or any other object. The moon won't get sucked in by the black hole Earth, Mercury won't get sucked in by black hole Sun (lol).

      Things orbit black holes just as they would orbit something of an equivalent mass that wasn't a black hole. Shifting over into a black hole doesn't make things suddenly start falling in.

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    28. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      From my point of view, it looks a lot easier to just downmod you than to try to pound a clue into your head. However, here's something for you to think about: intuition and common sense are a codification of experience gained at what I might call the human scale. They aren't reliable even so, as studies have shown that people tend to get such physics wrong if they haven't been educated: for example, it's surprisingly common for people to assume that, if they move an object in a circular motion, it will continue in a circular motion if they let go. They won't explain it in that way, but if asked to roll a ball through a curved section they're likely to move it in a way matching to the curve and let go.

      However, the human scale is insufficient to understand things on considerably larger and smaller scales. There are effects that are insignificant to human perception that add up on larger scales. Objects that move very, very fast, much faster than anything we usually perceive, don't behave as we'd expect from human-scale experience. Very small effects can build up over times much longer than a human lifetime, so we don't notice them. To figure out what happens on intergalactic scales, we have to disregard what we're used to that doesn't scale up all that well (e.g., electromagnetic interactions) and learn the subtleties of stuff that does (e.g., gravity) in much greater detail.

      Similarly, classical physics recognized that a lot of laws of physics are statistical in nature (e.g., the Second Law of Thermodynamics). If an effect is statistical, it means that it's composed of a very large number of small interactions that are not necessarily like anything we normally perceive. Suppose you were an actuary, and could calculate the expected lifespan of a group. You would be ignoring a whole host of things (e.g., Joe gets overconfident and drives too fast on a mountain road) and still getting the right answer. Knowing the statistical properties of something (human-scale common sense) doesn't necessarily tell you much about what is happening in detail, at smaller scales.

      Then, of course, there's trying to figure out how things work. Are you familiar with black-body radiation? It's common sense that things glow when they get hot, but classical physics cannot explain why.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    29. Re:Black hole in the astronomical desert by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Would that include a place where the equivalent of Slashdot posters are in high demand for mating practices by members of other sex(es)?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  5. Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Guy+Smiley · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe this is what they have been spending years trying to invent the invisible and undetectable dark matter for?

    1. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Sique · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's quite not the case. The Dark Matter affects how galaxies rotate.The movement of the outer parts of a large galaxy are in a way as if the galaxy was much heavier than we would expect just from the radiation coming from that galaxy. So we already know that galaxies contain more (gravitationally detectable) matter than we see (elektromagnetically detectable), and that additional matter doesn't emit any light, hence we call it Dark Matter. A supermassive black hole in a small galaxy will not too much affect the rotation of a large galaxy nearby. Thus supermassive black holes in small galaxies won't explain the effects that forced us to postulate the existence of Dark Matter.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps super massive ejected black holes? If they're not currently consuming matter, they are only detectable by their gravitational effects and potential lensing.

    3. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative
      They have to be within the galaxies to explain their movement. The outer parts of a galaxy rotate with a speed that is only explainable if the part of the galaxy that is within the orbit of the outer parts is much heavier than just the mass we can detect by the emitted light. And it has to be distributed througout the galaxy as the effect is larger, if we go more far away from the center.

      So neither supermassive black holes in the galaxy's center nor ejected supermassive black holes can explain the effect.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    4. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by GuB-42 · · Score: 2

      Wow, it sounds so right, and yet... so wrong.

    5. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      Unless there are so many super massive black holes that it makes up the difference ...

      You do realize we may not actually know everything about how the universe works right? Hence the point of this article ... there are more black holes than expected ... yet here you are immediately throwing out an idea because you think you know whats going on ... while being shown you don't know whats going on.

      Science doesn't allow for your preference for how the universe works. You don't get to say 'won't explain the effects' because you have no idea if it will or won't since you have no idea what the population is.

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    6. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative
      You don't need to simulate all bodies in a galaxy to determine an orbit close enough to see some aberrations. For simple calculations, you could just imagine all mass within an orbit to be concentrated in the central point of that orbit, the gravitational center. Isaac Newton already proved that every homogenous hollow sphere has the same gravitational properties to a body outside the sphere as if all mass of that hollow sphere was concentrated in the gravitational center. The gravitational effect of a homogenous hollow sphere to a body inside of it on the other hand is zero.

      To calculate the time a celestial body needs to orbit a galaxy, you thus calculate it as if the whole mass inside the orbit was concentrated at the center of the galaxy, and you just ignore all mass that is outside of the orbit. Thus, the distance to the center and the rotational speed of any given star in a galaxy gives you an estimation of the mass of the galaxy until the star's orbit, if you know the mass of the star itself. If you do this for several stars at different orbits, you get an idea how the mass in the galaxy is distributed. Of course, this calculation is just a rough approximation, as you have to account for General Relativity effects for better results.

      But still, this rough approximation already shows, that especially for the stars in the outer regions of a galaxy, the mass of the galaxy part within their orbit has to be about five times more heavy than what the estimation from the emitted light would indicate.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    7. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Bengie · · Score: 1

      DM has been sopped passing through matter also. Unless you know of a way for a blackhole to pass through a large gas cloud and not disturb anything. DM is diffusely distributed, blackholes are concentrated.

    8. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Bengie · · Score: 1

      "Maybe Relativity is completely wrong and can't predict anything at all" - This is you. without Dark Matter, Relativity is horribly broken, along with almost every other part of physics that we hold dear. Of course if you want to ditch everything we think is correct and create a whole new type of physics, go for it.

    9. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Bengie · · Score: 2

      I have some homeopathic solutions for the Zika virus so you won't get autism from vaccines. Sorry, you just sound like the perfect customer.

    10. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      Five dimensional black hole maybe?

      http://www.space.com/32008-fiv...

    11. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I've never understood this need for greater mass at the outer edges, but I also know little about physics that I don't pick up as technobabble from TV and movies. Doesn't the black hole at the center of the galaxy have a time dilation effect? And if so, wouldn't time move more slowly the closer you get to the center of the galaxy to an outside observer? So the outer edge of the galaxy would appear to rotate faster, but only relatively.

    12. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Would be nice but my impression is nope, MACHOs have been considered before, and even with the likes of this it's nowhere near. Also it leaves observations like the Bullet Cluster unexplained.

      --
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    13. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Dark Matter is a bit of an unwelcome thing on /. and I've no idea why.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    14. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Globular clusters and dwarf galaxies are small compared to spirals and ellipticals. They are nowhere near what you need to explain galactic rotation curves.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    15. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 2

      It doesn't help to explain galactic rotation curves, and it doesn't help with observations like the bullet cluster. Doesn't matter what his preference or yours is.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    16. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Why is it that we know so much more about galaxies than our own planet? Hmm? Whats that? I couldn't hear you explain to me why that is?

      Why get on in such a dickish fashion?

      We see Earth somewhat closer up than galaxies. The weather is different because it's a non-linear, chaotic system. Space is often quite serene in comparison because it's mostly empty.

      What exactly are you so angry about with Dark Matter? It's a postulate. That's why there are detectors looking for it. If we never find it, fine, it must not exist. You seem to have decided ahead of time that it doesn't exist. Care to explain why?

      Things like MACHOs and Modified Newtownian gravity fail to explain certain things, such as the Bullet Cluster, while cold dark matter explains them rather well.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    17. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      EM is stronger than gravity, then why do they think gravity is the dominant force? The answer will surprise you, I'm sure.

      Gravity is always attractive, electromagnetism comes with sign. + and + repel.

      You are a crank.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    18. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Sique · · Score: 1

      Why it should? We are talking about stable orbits of celestial bodies around a gravitational center. Slingshoting a spacecraft definitely does not fall into the "stable orbit" category.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    19. Re:Maybe this is the "missing mass"? by Bengie · · Score: 1

      You effectively just said "Dark Matter" as soon as you said "something new". Dark Matter is a place holder for something new . It could be a new force, it could be new matter, or could be anything that we don't already know about because everything we know about will not work.

  6. Dark matter ? by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    Assuming much more matter has been concentrated, over the lifetime of the universe, into black holes - then is this a usable attempt to explain what we still designate as "black matter" ?

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Dark matter ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      No dark matter is the souls of the departed, undetectable except by their mass.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:Dark matter ? by Tyr07 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Black matter matters?

    3. Re:Dark matter ? by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      No.

      Dark matter isn't just matter we don't see. It's matter that doesn't collide with regular matter, which makes it not conform to galaxies' disk shape.

    4. Re:Dark matter ? by gtall · · Score: 1

      More to the point, dark matter is matter that doesn't collide with physicists so they get to ascribe to it any perplexing properties they like and then feed it to the rest of us in a bid to act like they do understand how it acts in the universe.

    5. Re:Dark matter ? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Physicists have postulated the existence of cold dark matter because the observations require something to explain them. Large detectors have been built in an attempt to find dark matter. You, on the other hand, have decided that it doesn't exist. What's your explanation, then? Why don't you clear all this up for the rest of us?

      In my experience, when someone characterises the current picture so ungenerously, it's because they're a crank of some kind.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re:Dark matter ? by lord_mike · · Score: 1

      To be fair, scientists once believed that there was a "luminous ether" that propagated light as well, even running elaborate experiments to prove it's existence. It just "had" to exist, since science at the time couldn't think of any other solution to the problem. Of course, they eventually figured out that light acts differently than other energy waves and dropped the matter entirely. The "dark matter" issue feels very much like the luminous ether... something that "exists" if only because the current models don't work very well otherwise.

    7. Re:Dark matter ? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The luminiferous aether was never a comfortable hypothesis. To transmit waves at light-speed, it had to be incredibly rigid, and yet normal matter had to pass through it freely while still blocking the waves. It served only one theoretical purpose, which was to give light waves something to be in.

      Dark matter works nicely as a hypothesis, and doesn't conflict with other things we know. It provides good reasons for galactic rotation curves, gravitational lensing, and some stuff I don't understand about the distribution of matter in the Universe. We already know of something similar to dark matter: neutrinos. Something like slow massive neutrinos (WIMPs) would work as dark matter.

      I simply don't understand why some people are so reluctant to consider the possibility.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  7. Just great. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Monster Black Holes May Lurk All Around Us

    I thought I only had to watch out for their over-priced HDMI cables.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  8. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by MarkWegman · · Score: 2

    Some of the evidence for dark matter is that parts of galaxies revolve at a different rate than would be expected if all the matter were of they type we understand. This black hole is much bigger than the black holes in some known galaxies. The rotational speed of those galaxies can't be explained by a super massive black hole in a different galaxy. One of the mysterious effects is the difference in rotational speed as you go out from the center of the galaxy. Again that can't be impacted by something that's only in the center. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... From that same article you'll see other evidence based on gravitational lensing that again can't be explained away by even a large number of super massive black holes.

  9. Just an irk by bytesex · · Score: 1

    But the human habitation analogies in this piece make me cringe just a bit.

    --
    Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
  10. Stuoid headline by rossdee · · Score: 1

    We would notice if any supermassive black holes were close enough to affect us

    1. Re:Stuoid headline by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      close enough to affect us

      Everything in the observable universe is close enough to affect us.

    2. Re:Stuoid headline by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      Actually if we were in a large enough super massive black hole (Like known universe size super ultra massive black hole) you wouldn't notice the effects for millions of years. Since everything is reletive, all objects in the universe would be accelerating towards the black hole at roughly the same speed.

      Even if 'moving away from the 'center' relative to you, but in in reference to the black hole, falling slower than you. So we could be in the event horizon of a black hole this very moment. Might account for some of the strange 'expansion of the universe' rate issues.

    3. Re:Stuoid headline by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Nope. Most of the observable Universe is so far away, it will never interact with us again. It's so far away that it's moving away from us faster than light.

    4. Re:Stuoid headline by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      Nope. That which cannot interact with us is not observable, and thus beyond the observable universe boundary, by definition.

    5. Re:Stuoid headline by Maritz · · Score: 1

      So minutely as to be disregarded, sure.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re:Stuoid headline by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

      But your observation is of the light that left the object many millions of years ago. By now the object could very well be traveling away from us faster than light and will not interact any more.

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
    7. Re:Stuoid headline by Bengie · · Score: 1

      You should do a bit of reading from the past decade. The whole discussion about the Universe inflating has been driven by the fact that we can see galaxies that are moving away from us nearly 3x the speed of light. This is why the observable Universe is only 13.8 billion years old but is about 90 billion light years across.

  11. I can verify this. by Shadyman · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can verify. There is a giant one in my wallet. I put money in... aaaaaand it's gone.

    1. Re:I can verify this. by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      I can verify. There is a giant one in my wallet. I put money in... aaaaaand it's gone.

      If it's thong-shaped and on a stripper, it's not your wallet.

  12. These comments suck by istartedi · · Score: 1

    Don't get sucked in to a discussion on why black holes don't suck any more than regular objects. That would suck.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  13. Re:Black holes are made up by Lord+Crc · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is 0 evidence that what we call a "black hole" is an actual real class of objects that really exist.

    Black holes is a prediction of our theory which matches observations so far. A recent example is the black hole merger causing the gravitational waves detected at LIGO.

    Unless we find a different theory which matches observations better and which says that black holes are in fact not black holes but something else, we will think of these objects as black holes.

    Theory suggests that black holes cannot form because they would require infinite time to collapse.

    This is plain wrong. The collapse happens in a very short time, in the proper frame of reference.

    See for example http://physics.stackexchange.c... for more details.

  14. Re:Black holes are made up by Thanshin · · Score: 1

    There is 0 evidence that what we call a "black hole" is an actual real class of objects that really exist.

    Black holes is a prediction of our theory which matches observations so far.

    So... Like anything deeper than a few km in our own Earth. Or Earth's orbit around the Sun.

    Thank you, but I think I'll continue to take as real that which "is a prediction of our theories which matches observations so far".

  15. Re:Black holes are made up by Thanshin · · Score: 1

    Disregard that. I was answering the previous post. Sorry for the moment of dumbness.

  16. What's so surprising? by sabbede · · Score: 1

    A relatively young and small galaxy turns out to have a supermassive black hole at its center and people are wondering how it got there? How about this: The galaxy is forming around the black hole, not the other way around.

  17. Mighty appetite by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "While finding a gigantic black hole in a massive galaxy in a crowded area of the Universe is to be expected -- like running across a skyscraper in Manhattan"

    The holes have already eaten everything, that's the same reason why there are no penguins on the North-pole, the polar bears ate them all.

    1. Re:Mighty appetite by PPH · · Score: 1
      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  18. Re:Black holes are made up by sabbede · · Score: 1

    What theory "suggests that black holes cannot form"? Whose theory is it? Yours? Is your math better than Hawking's? And what about all the observations matching the predicted signs of black holes?

  19. Nah! by eyenot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some nice theories here but I'm sticking with my own pet theory: our observable universe exists entirely inside a black hole, slowly being compressed at the center across time.

    Our measurements that don't take this into account see the universe as "expanding" because our cherry-picked points of reference are actually getting closer together.

    But since this is all happening simultaneously, even our own instruments and myriad points of reference for myriad "constants" are also being compressed, which means it completely goes over our heads and the ruler we think we're holding is much shorter than it actually is.

    Also, being on the inside of an event horizon explains why a universe that's supposed to be lit up with infinite stellar matter is more or less dark. Not the entire actual, "outside" universe is in here, inside this particular black hole, with us.

    The smallest, relatively debris-like space rock outside this black hole might astound us with dimensions the size of the local group, and indeed the local group may have formed long after such a space rock was sucked in past this black hole's event horizon. As the matter from the space rock was siphoned into a stream of particles past the event horizon, and entered into proximity with the particles of other objects that had also been sucked in, their relative closeness exerted some weak influence of gravity and they coalesced into various tiny swirls and clouds.

    Meanwhile, we cannot detect the singularity at the center of the black hole because of the relative proximity of all observable objects near to it. It would just appear to be a "background force" omnipresent over everything, and we would never be able to develop either an instrument to measure the singularity's exerted force because of a lack of possible reference-points.

    This leads to the question "well, since black holes also capture light particles, why isn't all the light of the 'real', 'outside' universe also visible as a sheen all around us at the edges of the visible universe?"

    But we don't have any concept of what happens to light after it crosses an event horizon. For all we know, photons are just energetic enough to whip around the event horizon without ever being perceived again (you'd have to be right on the event horizon, with a line of observation orthogonal to the photon's path -- which is always changing due to the centripetal force pointing inward) and only less energetic forms such as hydrogen actually manage to "fall in" (which would explain the otherwise inexplicable background hydrogen.)

    Sorry if you haven't encountered this theory before, it's entirely my own creation that I came up with just trying to be controversial while lounging around staring at the sky at night. I'm not nearly mathematically creditable enough (only recently passed Differential Equations and completed my minor in mathematics, and majoring in computer engineering, not astrophysics or related fields,) I don't have the time or the fancy, and most importantly of all I wouldn't want to be the one to have to break it to anybody.

    And I'm absolutely sure it would be rejected outright, just because every time I bring it up to anyone they just get stunned and stare off into space. I mainly use it as a psych-out for people who are high or drunk at parties, you know -- to fuck with people.

    --
    "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
    1. Re:Nah! by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      Lot of people have posted a 'theory' to this, including myself. There's just no data or pursuit to follow to prove it. E.G Inside massive black hole / does god exist.

    2. Re:Nah! by eyenot · · Score: 1

      I'm glad to hear other people have posited the same theory.

      About the only thing we could hope for (if we're serious -- I'm not too sure that I am in this case) is that enough people support the theory and wait around for all of the thousands of other theories that are based on its exact inverse to eventually fail, leaving no further opposition.

      --
      "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
    3. Re:Nah! by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Horton, is that you?

    4. Re:Nah! by ooloorie · · Score: 2

      Some nice theories here but I'm sticking with my own pet theory: our observable universe exists entirely inside a black hole, slowly being compressed at the center across time. ... But since this is all happening simultaneously, even our own instruments and myriad points of reference for myriad "constants" are also being compressed, which means it completely goes over our heads and the ruler we think we're holding is much shorter than it actually is.

      That doesn't fit observations or models of black holes. Falling towards a singularity, physical constants and dimensions aren't expected to behave that way.

      People have thought about existence inside a black hole, and it looks very different.

    5. Re:Nah! by budgenator · · Score: 1

      C/H0 = Rhs Distance to edge of observable Universe is a little bigger because expansion is accelerating and will in the future pass the edge of the Hubble sphere.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    6. Re:Nah! by TerraFrost · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of this post:

      https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=578907&cid=23722965

      if you have a galaxy at the center of a collapsing black hole, and are in the galaxy, you cannot tell the difference between that event and a big bang. Moreover, once the SC-radius has formed, you cannot tell whether you are inside the black hole, or outside it as the rest of the universe collapses into it's own black hole. Moreover, because light that goes out from the universe / black hole gets redirected back inwards, you cannot tell the boundary of a black hole from the boundary of a universe. They are, by dual definition, identical.

    7. Re:Nah! by Maritz · · Score: 1

      You made a hell of a lot of assertions there, with fuck all basis in fact. I'm afraid that is basically meaningless word-salad. I bet the people you 'fuck with' think you're real clever though, and isn't that the main thing?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    8. Re:Nah! by ByteSlicer · · Score: 1

      Some nice theories here but I'm sticking with my own pet theory: our observable universe exists entirely inside a black hole, slowly being compressed at the center across time.

      Since we are in the exact center of our observable universe (per definition), that would mean we would be in the exact center of your postulated black hole.
      Which would be both an astronomical coincidence (given the near infinite amount of space available), and a very bad place to be (since there should be a universe sized singularity in the center).

      In other words: not a chance this is true.

  20. [Re:Nah!] by eyenot · · Score: 1

    "we would never be able to develop either the instrument..." ... to finish the sentence: "or the observation of a point of reference outside of the local effects of the black hole."

    Also: the main reason this theory isn't acceptable is because, in line with the standards of meritable academe, it can't pass Karl Popper's standard of falsifiability. Unless Thomas Kuhn's theory of experimental paradigm can be modified to disprove that Popper's falsifiability is required for all experimental conclusions -- perhaps by way of suggesting that an experiment's constraints can be expanded to allow for data outside of the observable universe -- it's not a useful theory and it should by all rights fail to be published. It would be academic suicide to even make a noble effort.

    --
    "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
    1. Re:[Re:Nah!] by eyenot · · Score: 1

      And any ways, it's embarrassing. Supposing you offered to include data outside the observable universe, someone trite could ask "oh, yeah? Where'd you get that from?"

      Which all implies that your mother is the size of the observable universe, you know, what with all the talk of light-emitting matter entering the cherry-picked black hole and all, Adam Kadmon, etc.

      --
      "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
  21. Re:Black holes are made up by Bengie · · Score: 1

    What "we" call black holes also includes "grey holes". We're just talking about something denser than a neutron star and gives off almost no light of its own.

  22. We don't know what dark matter is by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Dark matter isn't just matter we don't see. It's matter that doesn't collide with regular matter, which makes it not conform to galaxies' disk shape.

    We don't know for certain that what we are calling "dark matter" is matter at all. Dark Matter is a place holder term used to explain a gap between our observations and our models. We have some guesses as to what it might be and we've ruled out a few possibilities. Calling it some form of weakly interacting matter is among the more reasonable hypothesis but we can't confirm or deny that idea at this time. It also could be some sort of error in our model of how gravity works. Not quite as likely but not conclusively ruled out either. It's possible that it is something else altogether. We just don't really know. Saying it is matter we cannot see pre-supposes that it is actually matter when in fact we really aren't certain. It seems likely that it is matter but there are other possibilities still on the table.

    1. Re:We don't know what dark matter is by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Ha ha ha. Look at you making it seem like it's the same thing. You can basically be disregarded as a fucking idiot opining on shit they know nothing about.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:We don't know what dark matter is by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      This is a conversation for adults. But feel free to scream and cry in the background like an annoying baby.

      Only your parents give a fuck and only because they have to take you home to change your diapers after the conversation is over.

  23. Re:Sounds like porn by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    for only $8.99 for a 4 hour block.

  24. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by omnichad · · Score: 1

    One of the mysterious effects is the difference in rotational speed as you go out from the center of the galaxy.

    Why can't this be explained by time dilation from the gravity of the black hole? The center is only rotating slower to an outside observer, but could in fact be going the same number of Km/h (to pick a completely off-scale unit).

  25. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by Thanshin · · Score: 1

    Why can't this be explained by time dilation from the gravity of the black hole? The center is only rotating slower to an outside observer, but could in fact be going the same number of Km/h (to pick a completely off-scale unit).

    It just doesn't. Time dilation is not arbitrary, it has to work in a very specific manner for all the math and the experimental results (and internet) to work.

    The gravitational effect of the accounted for mass in each galaxy doesn't explain their movement.

  26. Re:Black holes are made up by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
    /internet

    But that is what tv is for.

  27. Re:Black holes are made up by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    Black holes is a prediction of our theory which matches observations so far. A recent example is the black hole merger causing the gravitational waves detected at LIGO. Unless we find a different theory which matches observations better and which says that black holes are in fact not black holes but something else, we will think of these objects as black holes.

    There are many possible models collapsed objects that match our observations so far. A "black hole" (i.e., an object with a singularity) is only one of many such models, but it happened to be one of the earliest ones, which is why the name stuck. In reality, we already know that black holes in the strict sense don't "match observations", in the sense that they are not compatible with quantum mechanics.

  28. Re:Black holes are made up by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Discussions of alien civilizations waging wars over those canals were a popular household topic conversation, just like black holes today.

    Wow your household must be really different from mine, Sheldon Cooper. OBTW did you know they really fucked up your theme song, the universe started 13 Billion years not 13 Million, Idiot song writers.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  29. Enrico Fermi Is Laughing by JustBoo · · Score: 2

    All these hysterical headlines.

    So, I invoke a variation of the Fermi Paradox in relation to black holes. If they were all over the place "lurking" as the article suggests we should see evidence of that through Gravitational Lensing. Random points in space where suddenly we see a 'smear.' Other evidence would be through objects moving in odd was as we see at the center of our own galaxy. I've never read about any of that.

    Last time I checked, we only see lensing where there is a defined galaxy, which then explains the lensing effect. And there we have it.

    I realize things move fast in cosmology so perhaps my information is dated already. I always welcome a chance to learn something new.

  30. Re:Black holes are made up by Lord+Crc · · Score: 1

    A "black hole" (i.e., an object with a singularity) is only one of many such models, but it happened to be one of the earliest ones, which is why the name stuck.

    From what I understand, the current definition of a black hole is not an object with a singularity, but a region of space surrounded by an event horizon.

  31. Definitions by sjbe · · Score: 2

    We don't know for certain that what we are calling Matter is matter at all. Matter is a term used to explain our observations and our models.

    [eyeroll] What we refer to as matter is matter by definition based on phenomena we have directly observed and experiments we have conducted on its properties. We understand quite a lot (though not everything) about its properties and component parts. Dark matter is something we have no direct observations of and have no idea what its properties might be aside from its apparent effect on gravitational models at large physical scales. We know matter is matter because we've seen it directly, have experimental evidence of its properties and assigned it a name. We have no idea if dark matter is actually matter because we haven't seen it directly and have no direct experimental evidence of its properties, though we have assigned it a tentative name. The most we've managed to do with dark matter is to constrain its possible properties somewhat but much more work remains to be done. It makes sense to tentatively call it matter as long as we acknowledge that such a label may turn out to be ultimately incorrect.

    To put it plainly I'm not arguing that we don't know anything. I'm pointing out that our actual understanding of what we are calling "dark matter" is rather limited at this time. Not the first time that has happened in our scientific history and it won't be the last.

    It also could be some sort of error in our model of how energy works.

    Matter and energy are the same thing. E=MC^2 and all that. That is well understood. Saying you have an error in your model of energy is really the same as saying you have an error in your model of matter.

    1. Re:Definitions by Thanshin · · Score: 2

      You are wrong. The fact that we don't know what dark matter is, doesn't imply we don't know whether it's matter.

      One of the few things we know is that it is matter.

      The other thing we are certain about is that it does not interact as easily as other matter with "accounted for" matter.

      "Direct observation" stopped being required proof over a century ago.

  32. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by Maritz · · Score: 1

    The time dilation effect is highly localised to the black hole.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  33. FTFY by Maritz · · Score: 1
    "Einstein is wrong"

    No mate. You're wrong.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  34. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    One of the mysterious effects is the difference in rotational speed as you go out from the center of the galaxy. Again that can't be impacted by something that's only in the center.

    And yet they treat the galaxy as a point source of gravity at the center. See this post by Sique as an example. Plus, if gravity waves are a reality, then gravity must travel at a limited speed. This would mean that things orbit where the gravity was and not where it is now. This would also mean that the stars in the same orbit at the outer edges of the galaxy are affected by the stars ahead in the orbit more than the ones behind in the orbit. Since they are all travelling around together and gravity has a speed limit the ones following you have a "blue-shifted" gravity while the stars ahead of you have a "red-shifted" gravity.

    It seems that there are other possible explanations for the galactic curve problem using relativity. The bullet galaxy and lensing are another matter though.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  35. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by Agent0013 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, stars following would be "red-shifted" and stars ahead would be "blue-shifted". I put those backwards in my first post.

    --

    -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  36. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by omnichad · · Score: 1

    Localized is a bit of a weird way to put it. The effect decreases with distance. But as you go further out, you're also orbiting not just the black hole but the rest of the galaxy in between, meaning more gravitational force in the same direction.

    But how much faster could the outside really be moving compared to the inside if the galaxy still has a distinct spiral shape and hasn't combined into an amorphous disc? If it's been rotating for billions of years, but still has distinct spiral arms, it can't be spinning that much faster.

  37. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by Maritz · · Score: 1

    There are different stars in the spiral arms all the time. They are basically just an area where the stars bunch up. What I mean by the time dilation effect is that just as with increasing your speed up to C, you only really get noticable effects when you're very close to it. You need to be very close to the horizon to get dramatic time dilation effects.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  38. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by MarkWegman · · Score: 1
    There's a very nice full explanation of the issues here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Basically in a system like our solar system, the inner planets, e.g. Mercury move faster than the outer ones and if they didn't they would either fall into the sun or escape the solar system. In galaxies we see that the outer stars go at pretty much the same speed that the inner ones do. If gravity is the reason orbital mechanics suggest that rather than a point source of mass like the sun or a big black hole, there must be a lot of mass spread out through the galaxy. The speed can be measured using red shifts etc..

    So a big black hole in the center can't be the explanation. There are lots of other explanations that have been knocked down (e.g. a lot of dust, stars that are more massive but somehow don't emit enough light etc). Look on wikipedia for why those don't work. I'm just pointing out why this new observation isn't the answer

  39. Re:Black holes are made up by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    From what I understand, the current definition of a black hole is not an object with a singularity, but a region of space surrounded by an event horizon.

    If that is the definition you use, then you can't talk about "our theory" or "a theory that matches observations better", because there is no single theory of "regions of space surrounded by an event horizon". The theory people use to make predictions about black holes is general relativity, and it is important to remember that (1) there are many other possible theories that have event horizons and are indistinguishable from it using current observations, and (2) general relativity can at best be an imperfect, incomplete approximation to a correct theory of gravitation.

    When people say that "black holes don't exist", that is basically just a shorthand for saying "black holes as described by general relativity don't exist", and that is a reasonable position to take given all available data.

  40. Well... by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    That sucks.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  41. Re:classic burn by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    No, just her dildo.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  42. How science works by sjbe · · Score: 1

    You are wrong. The fact that we don't know what dark matter is, doesn't imply we don't know whether it's matter.

    That is a non-sequitur. If we don't know what it is then QED we don't know if it is matter. Your argument is like viewing a UFO and immediately deciding it must be aliens from another planet - completely disregarding what the U stands for. It could very easily be a modeling error like the difference between Newtonian physics and General Relativity. If that turns out to be true then it obviously is not a new form of matter. Until we actually observe and can describe in detail something physical that is causing the difference between our models and our observations then modeling error remains a possibility. Right now all we have are some educated guesses and incomplete data.

    We do have some observations that tell us what Dark Matter cannot be but we still have a wide menu of options for what it actually is.

    One of the few things we know is that it is matter.

    No, we SUSPECT that it is matter. All the difference in the world. We plainly do not know that it is matter to a sufficiently level of certainty.

    The other thing we are certain about is that it does not interact as easily as other matter with "accounted for" matter.

    That can only be true if it actually is matter and we don't actually know that at this time.

    "Direct observation" stopped being required proof over a century ago.

    Not here on Earth. Last time I checked science was pretty serious about requiring actual proof through observations and evidence.

    1. Re:How science works by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Look, it has effective mass, which we can tell from gravitational effects, and it doesn't interact electromagnetically, or at least in a very very limited way. People have looked hard to see if it could be a modeling error, and tried to come up with other explanations for galactic rotation curves. However, trying to explain galactic rotation curves AND invisible gravitational lensing in lots of arbitrary-looking places requires more than just hacks to General Relativity.

      It has mass. What else has mass? Are you going to argue that it isn't matter, but instead something else that acts the same way?

      Exactly what do you mean by "direct observation"? Being able to see it or feel it? In that case, what color is a proton and what does it taste like? Everything we know about subatomic particles is inference from the behavior of more human-scale things under weird conditions we set up. We can no more directly observe a neutron than we can dark matter. We see effects, and figure it out from there.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  43. Re:Dark matter -- not the explanation by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Red shift and blue shift apply to wave frequency, but gravity waves aren't all that important for orbits. The Earth is in an orbit determined by gravity and velocity, and still we have to make incredibly sensitive equipment in order to detect any effects of gravity waves.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  44. Horrible Title for a topic by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Was this title

    Monster Black Holes May Lurk All Around us, intentionally posted to cause insults?

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    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada