Black Hole Particle Jets Explained 201
Screaming Cactus writes "A team of researchers led by Boston University's Alan Marscher have apparently worked out the physics behind the particle streams emanating from many black holes. According to the researchers, 'twisted, coiled magnetic fields are propelling the material outward.' By watching an 'unprecedented view' of a black hole in the process of expelling mass, they were able to confirm their theory, predicting where and when bursts of energy would be detected."
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This is how science works (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The scatological aspects of astronomy. (Score:4, Informative)
Now we have black holes expelling mass. I'm sure you're not the only one finding this humorous.
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The scatological aspects of astronomy. (Score:5, Informative)
Old hat (Score:2, Informative)
I wonder when they will discover that these "super massive destructive forces" are actually electric powerhouses that light up the cosmos.
Re:This is how science works (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:3, Informative)
The cool thing is, as they get smaller, they radiate faster. So they get smaller and hotter exponentially, and finally die (in theory...) in a massive burst of gamma rays. In the last second, they emit as much energy as a 5000000 megaton nuke. Would be a hell of a show (from a safe distance).
Re:Does it even matter? (Score:3, Informative)
There's a black hole. Quantum vacuum fluctuations create a particle-antiparticle pair near it, both with positive mass. One falls in, the other escapes. Thanks to quantum weirdnesses, the mass for the escaping one gets stolen from the black hole. Half the time it will be the antiparticle escaping, and half the time the particle. (Overall, though, they'll mostly do the same thing and both fall toward it or away from it, and annihilate each other with no net effect. But on the rare occasion when they get created in the right spot with the right energy, one will fall in and the other will escape.)
Of course, you could just read the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org].
Re:Hawking Radiation (Score:3, Informative)
I am french that is not informative (Score:5, Informative)