Small Black Holes: Cloudy With a Chance of Better Visibility 27
Rambo Tribble writes "As reported by the BBC, astronomers are hoping to reap a black-hole-hunting windfall when a giant gas cloud passes through an area within our galaxy thought to contain numerous small black holes (abstract). When the cloud interacts with the black holes, the resultant emission of X-rays should allow scientists to finally confirm their existence. 'The idea is that as the cloud speeds past these small black holes — some slightly more massive than our Sun but just a few tens of km across — gas will spiral around them faster and faster, heating up to millions of degrees and emitting X-ray light. It is a bit like allowing a giant sink to empty through thousands of tiny drains and looking for any evidence of swirling water.'"
A bit more like 1's than 0's. (Score:5, Funny)
It is a bit like allowing a giant sink to empty through thousands of tiny drains and looking for any evidence of swirling water.
It's a bit like dusting for fingerprints on a cosmic scale.
It's a bit like tossing handfuls of candy in a class room, then listening for quarreling and munching noises to detect school children.
It's a bit like rolling around in the grass then waiting for stings to discover fire ant mounds.
It's a bit like casting a net made out of fish and counting the holes to detect sharks.
It's a bit like shouting, "You're all fat and ugly" into the woman's bathroom then counting the "Screw You Jerk"s to see if you should wait to clean it.
It's a bit like making a bunch of posts on Slashdot to detect folks with mod points.
It's a bit like observing the expected effect black holes cause in various conditions to further confirm their existence.