Supermassive Black Holes Not So Big After All 153
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the puck-will-be-disappointed dept.
from the puck-will-be-disappointed dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Supermassive black holes are between 2 and 10 times less massive than previously thought, according to new calculations published by German astrophysicists (abstract)."
Re:Math? (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I'm also bothered when I hear "5 times more". Is it 6 times as much or 5 times as much?
Re:Math? (Score:4, Interesting)
The translation from "two times less massive" to "less massive by a factor of two" is pretty straightforward and easily understood...
The real problem happens in the opposite direction. A star that's 200% as massive as the sun is smaller than one that's 150% more massive than the sun, but many people will give the wrong answer if asked.