Giant Black Hole At Milky Way's Core Stays Slim 61
thomst writes "A team of researchers from Harvard and MIT announced at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society a new theoretical model of how the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way consumes gas from surrounding star clusters, based on a million seconds of observation by the orbital Chandra X-ray telescope. Astronomers had previously believed that the object, known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star') consumed only around one percent of the gases it stripped from the star clusters around it, but the new model reduces its consumption to 0.01 percent (i.e. — two orders of magnitude). Physorg.com's uncredited reporter gets the story right, while space.com's Andrea Thomspon clearly doesn't understand the mechanism behind the phenomenon (essentially, thermal conduction from the extremely-hot accretion disk heats the surrounding gas, causing it to expand, and thus move away from Sagittarius A*'s gravity well)."
Re:And let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
After reading that yawner of a story, I am SO FUCKING GLAD I never pursued astro research after that summer of my junior year in college.
If the story's boring it's the writer's fault. A good writer can write "how to mow a lawn" and make it interesting. Bad writing and boring teachers are what turns school kids off on learning, and most people off on science.
Re:So who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
As for my story, it is, of course, about both things - the new theory about Sagittarius A*, and the reporting about the theory - because both are relevant to me.
You're welcome not to care about either, though. Just try not to impute motives to other people without justification, lest you, yourself be judged a cynical troll with way too much time on its grubby little hands.
Just sayin' ...
Re:And let me be the first to say... (Score:4, Insightful)