Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy

StarCraft 2 writes "This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. In the image, it is clearly seen how the jet from the main galaxy on the lower left is striking its companion galaxy to the upper right. The jet impacts the companion galaxy at its edge and is then disrupted and deflected, much like how a stream of water from a hose will splay out after hitting a wall at an angle. The composite image was made by combining data from Chandra, Hubble and several other systems."

First time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently it's not the first time, or this article is a dupe of a previous article [slashdot.org]. (I think the latter is just a bit more likely.)

Re:

[sm62704]

I think it's a dupe. According to my user page here, I submitted "Intergfalactic particle beam spotted" on Monday December 17, @04:53PM. It was rejected, but someone else submitted the same story and it was posted.

I should have made a journal out of it, because I remember being in a silly mood that day and made quips about an intergalactic war. Peobably said something about a Romulan hull breach or something. On retrospect if I'd seen my submission in the firehose I'd have clicked the minus sign too.

Now for

Intergalactic Psyops = Redundant Dupe Posting

[WED Fan]

...made quips about an intergalactic war.

I believe the dupe is a psyop by the Department of Galactic Security.

Also, be very careful and keep an eye on your cubicle. I've read your post and I believe someone is moving the keys around on your keyboard. I'd put up a cam to catch the culprit if I were you.

Re:

[DiniZuli]

I was thinking the same thing when I read the article. It's a galactic version of what Larry Niven's Ringworld engineers came up with (They are "shooting" with a star to destroy meteors and enemies).

Re:

[davidsyes]

That's why I frackin' HATE trying to submit to Slash. It's probably best to first post it in your journal, THEN submit. I guess it boils down to who knows who, and how well written the submission summary is.

Slash could avoid the moderator/submitter favoritism by revamping the journal system to look at the weight of a journal that is submitted for sharing. The item URL could be fed to the major search engines, then pushed to the top based on the number of qualitative and AUTHORITATIVE links.

For example, NPR,

Re:

[davidsyes]

For example:

The Body Has A Mind of Its Own (broadcast Friday, December 21st, 2007)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200712214 [sciencefriday.com]
--
Toxic Homes and Household Toxins (broadcast Friday, December 14th, 2007)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200712144 [sciencefriday.com]
--
Exposed: the seven great medical myths
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3273183.ece [independent.co.uk]
--
Testing Toys for Lead
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16951320 [npr.org]

Re:

[sm62704]

I'm not bothered too much by having someone else get their submission posted instead of mine, especially since I've had eight posted this year. I do wish that the editors would do a quick google before an item is posted just to check for dupes, since every article that is remotely similar to some other article has every third comment yelling DUPE!1!!!ONE!!!

As to journals, I mostly like using mine to talk about hookers [slashdot.org] and my other friends. [slashdot.org]

Re:First time?

[provigilman]

There's a simpler explanation. Obviously the black hole particle jet is producing a tachyon emission that's made it's way to the Milky Way and is now causing us to relive the same /. stories over, and over, and over, and over, and over...

Re:First time?

[__aaclcg7560]

Not all intergalactic problems can be reduced to a simple Star Trek formula. :P

Re:

[dpilot]

But apparently some can.

Re:First time?

[Original Replica]

Not all intergalactic problems can be reduced to a simple Star Trek formula.

But they can all be solved by reversing the polarity.

Re:

[jank1887]

or crossing the streams

Re:

[Surlyboi]

My god, it's full of stars...

Re:

[Trogre]

So what is it?

Re:

[sjs132]

Just a hic-up in the Matrix... Soon the DAJa-Vu feelings will subside.

It's scary...

[JerryLove]

It's scary just how many different things out there seem waiting to kill you; from asteroids to stellar explosions to, now, death-star black-holes.

On the other hand: I'd imagine it's terribly useful to see what a galaxy does to such an emission. It's got to tell us a lot about things like the real density of the glactic body, and to what extent, if any, a galaxy clears space around it.

Re:It's scary...

[eebra82]

It's scary just how many different things out there seem waiting to kill you; from asteroids to stellar explosions to, now, death-star black-holes.

It's safe to say that you're exposed to a more probable danger when you're sitting in a car. Of course, if you get space-rayed while sitting in a car, you're pretty much doomed.

Re:

[sm62704]

It's scary just how many different things out there seem waiting to kill you; from asteroids to stellar explosions to, now, death-star black-holes.

I think your chances of dying from cancer, heart disease, auto accident, industrial accident, old age or even 'teh terrists' (unlikely as dying from a terrorist attack is) ar far, far greater than dying from some extraterrestrial phenomenon.

But no matter how you're going to die, you're going to die. There's no point in fearing the inevitable. We are all under a s

Re: Actually already had cancer

[JerryLove]

But fair enough. Perhaps I should have said "It's impressive the quantity and variety of things waiting to kill you". I'm not actually "scared". My poor choice of wording.

Re:

[sm62704]

What's funny is that I'm not afraid of dying, [kuro5hin.org] but I don't like to think about the incredible suffering that almost always preceeds it.

Re:

[ClubStew]

We should welcome our Black Hole Weapon-wielding overlords...before they fire at us, too.

death-star black holes

[Chrisq]

Are they sure its really a black hole...... I feel a great disturbance in the force.

Re:

[coldcell]

That's no moon!

Re:

[sm62704]

That's no moon!

If course it isn't, silly. It's a black hole [slashdot.org].

-mcgrew
Happy nude year! [slashdot.org]

Re:

[PingPongBoy]

moon

Speaking of which, if a deadly intergalactic ray was ever pointed at us, our best bet for immediate survival would be to move to the moon, the poles, or into orbit and constantly move to the side opposite the ray.

Since the ray is disruptive of the magnetic field, a generator might be constructed to counteract the disruption, at a risk of messing up the earth's magnetic generator.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The galaxy shot first.

Re:death-star black holes

[east coast]

The distrubance you feel is Sir Alec Guinness spinning in his grave from knowing that his most quoted line from film was from Star Wars.

Re:

[Chrisq]

Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
..newbie.

Learn more

[eebra82]

Check this link [google.com] to learn more about this phenomenon. It's a BBC documentary well worth your time.

Re:

[jdc180]

Or this link http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/17/2149239/ [slashdot.org] to learm more about this phenomenon or to learn what witty posts will earn you +5 Funny.

Re:

[jdc180]

That's http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/17/2149239 [slashdot.org]

Re:

[iacvlvs]

Same black hole. Different galaxy.
This is a joke.

Re:

[rucs_hack]

Actually this does pose a threat to us. The gigantic and devastatingly destructive waves of force caused by the post impact 'IMPRESSIVE' are as we read this, heading our way.

Re:

[chris411]

I'm about a quarter of the way through the documentary. It's interesting. But while I'm all in favor of 'spicing' things up to make science more thrilling to the layman, I sometimes couldn't help but chuckle at the overblown visual effects and dramatic descriptions.

Pew Pew Pew!

[Braintrust]

Pew!

How long?

[s!lat]

This is all well and good, but how long till someone tries to mount one of these to a shark?

Re:

[SpecTheIntro]

Or, God forbid, a killer badger? [wikipedia.org]

'Death Star' galaxy

[the_kanzure]

Over at the Orion's Arm [orionsarm.com] mailing list a week ago, this topic came up too: they were calling it a 'death star' galaxy.

Or possibly a Type III Kardashev civ [wikipedia.org] taking issue with the occupants of a nearby galaxy (or *maybe* an S6 or even S7 Galaxy Brain trying to insure a rival doesn't achieve the same status and threaten it?)! Looks like a cosmic beat-down either way!

Anyway, the galaxies have many awesome processes -- nebulas, supernovae, supermassive blackholes and that strange darkmatter 'void' -- some that we can, perhaps, take advantage of.

HUBRIS!!!

[sm62704]

Anyway, the galaxies have many awesome processes -- nebulas, supernovae, supermassive blackholes and that strange darkmatter 'void' -- some that we can, perhaps, take advantage of.

Look, dude, we're really really stupid and primitive*. We don't even understand subatomic phenomena very well. We are incredibly, mind-numbingly ignorant. There's a far greater chance that rather than taking advantage of these processes, they will take advantage of US.

-mcgrew

*Offtopic here, but I think the idea of alians from spac

Fire back!

[Nerdposeur]

If the other galaxy doesn't learn to fight back now, it's going to get pushed around for the rest of its life.

Re:

[Duhavid]

All it is doing is washing away the rain.

Leave it be.

Re:

[mseidl]

I'll bust a gap(of dark matter) at yo ass!

Dupe avoiding suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

This story is a dupe. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/10/2123233 [slashdot.org]

We get lots of dupes. Perhaps the editors could use google to screen for them. I put the following into google to find this dupe:

black hole blasts site:slashdot.org

but

black hole chandra site:slashdot.org

worked even better.

Re:

[sm62704]

Naw, they're far too busy editing to google. Especially Cowboy Neal.

First time? No, this is the second time...

[Anonymous Coward]

it's been on /. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/17/2149239 [slashdot.org]

Nice to see the editors are asleep at the wheel during the holidays though.

Re:

[pryoplasm]

It is not as if dupes come but only once a year.

Its a full time job being asleep at the wheel all year round...

The difference this time around...

[rHBa]

The difference this time around is that TFA has some cool, high def pics that I can crop for my desktop wallpaper :-)

PS (6.9 MB) [harvard.edu]
Tiff (43.4 MB) [harvard.edu]

Breaking news!

[uberphear]

Slashdot sprays dupe-posting editors with jets from black holes: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/17/2149239 [slashdot.org]

that's no blackhole

[techpawn]

It's a space station!

Dupe?

[Cro Magnon]

Wasn't this black hole shooting at a galaxy last week? Or was it a different hole?

Re:

[computerchimp]

Sort of a catch22:

If it is another black hole it is common and not so newsworthy.
If it is the same black hole it is old and so newsworthy.

cc
PS: its the same black hole, the poster is just a bit slow on the uptake. I suspect that it was posted to see how many Star Wars postings would be made for the annual Slashdot year end pool.

Re:

[sm62704]

Wasn't this black hole shooting at a galaxy last week? Or was it a different hole?

Yeah, here's the newspaper story [ajc.com].

Re:

[PPH]

It was reloading.

Holy Old news Batman

[netglen]

Are the /. editors asleep today? This is old news.

Black hole fires neighboring galaxy

[sm62704]

"Yo, c'mere."

"Yes maam?"

"You doin' a piss po' job. We ain't had no johns 'round hea fo' days."

"But it's the holidays, it's always slow this time of year."

"Don' matta, yo fired!"

Paraphrasing Don Imus....

[trailerparkcassanova]

That's some nappy-headed holes there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man....

I've always wondered...

[Epistax]

I've always wondered if all black holes do this but we simply aren't able to tell from our perspective. Such as a pen laser, you can't really tell if it's on unless it's aimed at or near your eye, if you can see what it is hitting, or if there is something in the air to illuminate. This would certainly go in line with the theory that black holes can never actually exist. That is, everything that appears to be a black hole is on the teetering edge of becoming one at all times, but constantly bleeds matter

Re:

[AdamThor]

Here is my possibly erroneous understanding, based on my undergraduate degree in physics.

I've always wondered if all black holes do this but we simply aren't able to tell from our perspective.

Any black hole into which stuff falls xrays emerge from. This is electromagnetic radiation, not matter. Yes, yes, energy/matter equivelency notwithstanding, it's light that comes out, not rocks and stuff.

Here's how it works. A black hole sucks things into it. When things go in the black hole, they spin around it on

Must be female!

[jav1231]

Beware a black hole scorned!

Black holes SUCK

[coniote]

Literally

1.4 billion years ago called

[davidwr]

They want their news back.

I for one...

[Salsaman]

...welcome our jet-shooting-black-hole overlords.

(Well, somebody had to say it...).

Natural Phenomenon or First Strike?

[uxbn_kuribo]

The creatures that are responsible for this will destroy us all!

the headline should have been

[sethg]

"Black hole sucks, blows"

Tagging

[Frigga's Ring]

What are the tags for this story. Let's see... science, space, starwars, moneyshot, and cumshot... Wait a second... what the heck does this story have to do with Star Wars?!

oops my bad

[escay]

who does the black hole think he is? Dick Cheney?

Ow

[stonefry]

Quit it...

the scale seems off

[brer_rabbit]

According to the scale in this photo [harvard.edu], these galaxies are only half the size of Stonehenge.

Something I heard

[WillyG00]

"Los agujeros negros son lugares del universo en donde Dios dividió por cero" - Steven Wright in english: "The Black Holes are places of the universe where God divided by zero" - Steven Wright beautiful description...

/. editors fire great yawns at stories

[dreamsofcaffeine]

As seen in other stories, our editors are obviously doing other things than checking if stories are actually dupes. But at least they've got a fine excuse: They still have not received their caffeine infusions due to their high level of social activity during Christmas.