Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Supermassive Black Hole Rocketing Out of Distant Galaxy At 5 Million MPH (blastr.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the flying-through-space dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes: Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole barreling out of its home galaxy at 5 million miles per hour. The 3 billion solar mass behemoth formed from the merger of two slightly smaller black holes after two galaxies collided and themselves merged. The resulting blast of gravitational waves is thought to have been asymmetric, causing a rocket effect which launched the resulting black hole away. It's currently 40,000 light years from the galaxy's core. Source: ESA/Hubble

41 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Why not use the NASA article instead? by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Informative

    Article found here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/g...

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    1. Re:Why not use the NASA article instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because the NASA article isn't retardedly overhyped.

    2. Re:Why not use the NASA article instead? by burtosis · · Score: 1

      Article found here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/g...

      You must be new here. People often don't read the summary, much less the linked article.

    3. Re:Why not use the NASA article instead? by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 1

      Because it's broken?

    4. Re:Why not use the NASA article instead? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      For your own sake I hope a .com TLD site never pisses you off.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  2. Fucking SCIENCE, amirite?? Holy WOW!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every one of these sentences translates to "You have no idea what this means and neither do we, but we really, really need the clicks so we're going to hype this shit up like NASA just made first contact."

    "it’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It’s chaos wielded on a mind-crushing scale."
    "Holy. WOW."
    "a distance vast enough to shrink even the mightiest galaxy to a smear of light."
    "But wait. Did I say “central”? Yeah, not so much. It appears to be significantly offset from the galaxy’s core, by about 40,000 light years. That’s a long haul."
    "the astronomers who investigated this object came up with a scenario that, frankly, gives me the willies."
    "That’s why I get the heebie-jeebies about stuff like this. Cripes!"
    "Imagine something that can toss around an object a billion times the mass of the Sun at speeds thousands of times faster than a rifle bullet!"
    "Why do I love science? That’s why."

    Meanwhile in real-scientist land...

    "When I first saw this, I thought we were seeing something very peculiar," said team leader Marco Chiaberge

  3. currently? by nyet · · Score: 1, Informative

    currently 40,000 years ago.

    1. Re:currently? by DamonHD · · Score: 4, Funny

      Relatively up-to-date when talking about /. news items. B^>

      Rgds

      Damon

      --
      http://m.earth.org.uk/
    2. Re:currently? by swamp_ig · · Score: 2

      Welll... with that much inertia nothing this side of the big crunch is gonna stop that black hole.

    3. Re:currently? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      currently 40,000 years ago.

      Umm, no.

      First off, it's not in our galaxy, so the 40Kyears from galactic center is irrelevant to how far in the past the event was.

      Secondly, it's moving about 2200 km/s. So it has moved 40k ly from its original position at or near its galactic center over the last 5.4 megayears.

      Plus, of course, the time the light has taken to get here. No, I'm not going to read TFA to find out how far away it is to determine more precisely when it happened because...

      Ultimately, of course, relativity says that talking about when something happened in a galaxy far, far, away is completely meaningless anyways....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    4. Re:currently? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      The temperature of the universe is still no lower anywhere than around 3K. All black holes are still going and will continue to do so for billions of years yet, even just by absorbing background microwave radiation.

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

      "going" = growing.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re:currently? by Maritz · · Score: 2

      Every astronomy article on slashdot is festooned with mongs who think they're the smartest kid in the class by pointing out that light travels at finite speed. They never tire of it.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  4. Re:Oh and btw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Doctor Who will save us in time for Christmas holiday. Happens every year.

  5. 4 billion years before the earth existed ... by csmithers · · Score: 1

    OK, so 4 billion years before the earth existed, we're finally seeing what happened. But it's cool that we can see that far :)

    1. Re:4 billion years before the earth existed ... by arth1 · · Score: 2

      OK, so 4 billion years before the earth existed, we're finally seeing what happened. But it's cool that we can see that far :)

      "4 billion years before" doesn't make any sense for relativistic distances where we don't have a common clock that ticks for both places - that galaxy, and ours.

      In our frame of reference, it happens now. In their frame of reference, we have no idea, because we can't apply our time frame to theirs.

    2. Re: 4 billion years before the earth existed ... by arth1 · · Score: 1

      We're not referring to their clock, we use our own since that's where we are. It's 8 billion light years away (our clock). Earth is 4.5 billion years old (our clock). Still roughly 4 billion years before the earth existed and we are now seeing it...

      There you use that word again, "before". It makes no sense at relativistic distances. There will be frames of reference that disagree on what is "before" and what is "after". You cannot apply our frame of reference and clock to their location, which is what you do here.

  6. Re:How many light years is that? by csmithers · · Score: 1

    8 billion.

  7. MPH, really? by JeffreyBPetersen · · Score: 3, Informative

    Approximately 0.01c.

    1. Re:MPH, really? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Approximately 0.01c.

      What's that in furlongs per fortnight, tho?

      I was thinking 18 hrs per AU, personally.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:MPH, really? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Next article : the explosion could be heard from 5 trillionth of a parsec.

  8. Empirical lab by Oligonicella · · Score: 4, Funny

    Excellent news. Now we can determine if the rotational issues with galaxies holds. All we have to do is observe this now coreless galaxy for the next 10 to 50 million years and see if it's rotation changes.

    1. Re:Empirical lab by zm · · Score: 1

      All we have to do is observe this now coreless galaxy for the next 10 to 50 million years and see if it's rotation changes.

      I'll bring popcorn.

      --
      Sig ?
    2. Re:Empirical lab by Maritz · · Score: 1

      DM is touchy subject on here for some bizarre reason. Presumably it's something to do with 'liberals'.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  9. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

    1. Re:Obligatory by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      At least something that makes sense compared to the general troll-postings by ACs.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  10. Glaciers melting in the dead of night by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Funny

    And the superstars sucked into the super massive

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  11. A truck! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Getting interested in that space program yet? Eggs in one basket, indeed

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:A truck! by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      Chances of solar system collision with a star or remains of one is essentially zero in the next 4 billion of years, even when Andromeda and the Milky Way pass through each other.

      As Douglas Adams said, "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

    2. Re:A truck! by Maritz · · Score: 1

      This is a supermassive black hole. Even if we were competent (we're obviously not) there probably wouldn't be much we could do about this if it was headed to us. The scope of destruction would not be limited to this planet.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  12. Re: Miles by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    Which never was uttered in TOS.

    Just a lot of variations on the theme.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  13. Re:Miles by taiwanjohn · · Score: 2

    What's the time dilation factor of a 3 billion solar mass black hole traveling at 2.7% the speed of light? For a spacecraft at that speed it wouldn't be much, but a massive black hole has its own time- and space-warping effects. Are there any actual physicists here who'd care to speculate?

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
  14. Get out by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    We've had enough of your shit, Brenda - now get out!

    Galaxy, probably.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  15. Rocketing a 2xSupermassive black hole? by Eloking · · Score: 2

    Damn, that's some Alien finishing move sh*t right there!

    Make the death star look kinda cute.

    --
    Elok
  16. Re:Miles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some statistics that might help:

    horizon radius | 8.86×10^12 meters
    event horizon area | 9.86×10^26 m^2 (square meters)
    surface gravity | 5070 m/s^2 (meters per second squared)
    temperature | 2.057×10^-17 K (kelvins)
    entropy | 1.303×10^73 J/K (joules per kelvin)

    Relative velocity to speed of light = 5000000mph / 671000000mph = 0.00745c

    Using Lorentz formula

    T = 1.000027

    Even at 5 million mph, it's still in first gear relative to the speed of light.

  17. Re:Electric Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It only explains it as long as you take it as being explained without questioning.

    As soon as you start asking "Is that right?" and testing the idea, you find it doesn't explain squat, any more than "God did it" does.

    The sooner electric universe kooks realise this the sooner they'll stop deluding themselves and start actually learning.

  18. Seriously awsome by joe_frisch · · Score: 1

    One of the most amazing objects in the universe.

    I'm a little surprised though that galactic mass black holes can in-spiral at any reasonable rate. It seems like the initial pass must have been exceptionally close.

  19. Re:Miles by Maritz · · Score: 2

    Furlongs per fortnight: 1.3439973e+10

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  20. Re:Miles by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Are there any actual physicists here who'd care to speculate?

    This is slashdot. You'd better hope these 'actual physicists' are running it by our armchair blowhards before they pipe up about anything.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  21. Re:Electric Universe by Maritz · · Score: 1

    They have credibility, you don't, and that is all as it should be. You might as well be positing leprechauns. Cheers.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  22. Re:Electric Universe by Maritz · · Score: 1

    LOL. Railguns. And the dish ran away with the spoon.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.