Milky Way Black Hole Could Reignite 117
sciencehabit sends us to Sciencemag.org for an account of a survey of nearby galaxies that points to the possibility that once-quiescent galactic nuclei could wake up and become active again. If the Milky Way's dormant black hole should become active, it could be bad news for life on Earth (and elsewhere in the neighborhood). The paper (PDF) is up on the arXiv.
Re:Eye muss bee knew hear (Score:3, Insightful)
> turn into a quasar is for the galaxy to collide with another galaxy.
You didn't RTFA very well. The point is that they have found galaxies whose black holes have reignited without there being any evidence of a collision.
Okay, so this isn't relevant to my day-to-day life (Score:3, Insightful)
SO - not unlike the assertion (for example) that there's a large asteroid with Earth's name on it, this research seems to indicate that perhaps we should start studying this phenomenon now even if there's nothing we can do about it now. After all, much of our modern technology was understood to be impossible/impractical as little as a century ago; if we start looking now, perhaps we can devise a mechanism for the preservation of our species before we need it. Then again, when has humanity ever shown that much foresight?
20 to 40%? Reignite? (Score:5, Insightful)
maybe it already has (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:maybe it already has (Score:3, Insightful)