The Milky Way's Black Hole Is Not So Quiescent 152
esocid writes in with a followup to the recent discussion about the possibility that our galaxy's central black hole could reignite. "Using NASA, Japanese, and European X-ray satellites, a team of Japanese astronomers has discovered that Sagittarius A* let loose a powerful flare three centuries before the time at which we are observing it (i.e., 26,000 years in the past). X-ray pulses emanating from just outside the black hole take 300 years to traverse the distance between the central black hole and a large cloud known as Sagittarius B2, so the cloud responds to events that occurred 300 years earlier. 'By observing how this cloud lit up and faded over 10 years, we could trace back the black hole's activity 300 years ago,' says team member Katsuji Koyama of Kyoto University. 'The black hole was a million times brighter three centuries ago.'"
Black(hole)box joke. (Score:5, Funny)
That's a bit of a confusing sentence but I think I understand. What they really meant to say is that if Sagittarius A's flare produces a 26,000 Hz tone, it
will interfere with GT&T's subspace carrier signal and allow you to send free messages to the gamma quadrant.
yet more evidence of human interferance (Score:5, Funny)
Damn global warming!
Re:A million times brighter than black? (Score:2, Funny)
Burning requires oxygen, but everyone knows there is no oxygen in space!
Why else would the space-men wear those funny hats?
QED
Re:Now I'm completly lost (Score:4, Funny)
Ni.
Re:The Two Things Rule (Score:5, Funny)
Pogo said it best: Nuclear physics ain't so new, and it ain't so clear.
OB Billy Joel reference (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Other deadly core issues? (Score:4, Funny)
It's not thought likely. Supernovae are triggered by the collapse of a star's core; external phenomena don't have a great deal to do with it. However, active galactic nuclei have been known about for quite some time. Perhaps when Niven was writing, the idea that active galaxies were powered by chained supernova swarms was current in the literature.
The contemporary model for such phenomena is that the gas swirling around the black hole is heated by friction and by compression as it moves inward. Consider: you're dropping thousands of solar masses through the deepest gravity well in the universe. That releases an awful lot of energy. It makes little difference to Niven's nightmare scenario: it's entirely possible that our Galaxy was active in this way in the past, may become so again in the future, and may even be a little bit active right now. If anyone were to go to the galactic core today in a General Products #3 hull with a quantum-II hyperdrive and discover that the X-ray flux was way, way higher than it ought to be... then we'd better start making plans to run to Andromeda, now.
Re:A million times brighter than black? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Now I'm completly lost (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the Brown Note? (Score:2, Funny)
"26,000 Hz tone"...
Sounds like the Brown Note [wikipedia.org]...
Re:Now I'm completly lost (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New extinction event hypothesis? (Score:2, Funny)
It isn't an issue of stupidity no matter how much you wish it was, just an issue of posting too fast. Besides, I do have a signature but my post didn't, that is all. Anyway, here it is: Failure to question fundamental statements, even when made by eminent authorities, is a key feature of poor science. - Simon Singh