First Dormant Black Hole Found Outside the Milky Way (theguardian.com) 35
A dormant black hole nine times the mass of the Sun has been found outside the Milky Way for the first time, in what researchers have called a "very exciting discovery." The Guardian reports: Though it is not the first contender, a researcher from the University of Sheffield says this black hole is "the first to be unambiguously detected outside our galaxy." The researchers had been looking for black hole binary systems for more than two years before finding what has become known as VFTS243. Stellar-mass black holes are formed when massive stars reach the end of their lives and collapse under their own gravity. In a system of two stars revolving around each other, this process leaves behind a black hole in orbit with a luminous companion star.
The newly discovered dormant black hole is at least nine times the mass of the Earth's Sun, and orbits a hot blue star weighing 25 times as much as the Sun. It has been observed in a neighboring galaxy by a team of international scientists; their study -- published in Nature Astronomy -- suggests that the star that gave rise to VFTS243 vanished without any sign of an associated supernova explosion. Confirming the likelihood of what he termed a "direct-collapse scenario," Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at the University of Sheffield, believes this has "enormous implications for the origin of black hole mergers in the cosmos."
The newly discovered dormant black hole is at least nine times the mass of the Earth's Sun, and orbits a hot blue star weighing 25 times as much as the Sun. It has been observed in a neighboring galaxy by a team of international scientists; their study -- published in Nature Astronomy -- suggests that the star that gave rise to VFTS243 vanished without any sign of an associated supernova explosion. Confirming the likelihood of what he termed a "direct-collapse scenario," Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at the University of Sheffield, believes this has "enormous implications for the origin of black hole mergers in the cosmos."
Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:4, Funny)
It's like sitting chilling on your porch with a beer with a big hungry alligator in front of it.
You know that one day he is going to eat you alive.
Re: Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:3)
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"Then the black hole will start to accrete (read: suck) material from the star and emit lots of radiation from the accretion disk."
Not this one, the material ignores this black hole, because it isn't very attractive.
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Not this one, the material ignores this black hole, because it isn't very attractive.
All black holes are quite attractive.
You just have to get close to them to see it.
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Re: Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:4, Funny)
" However, the black hole may steal stellar material, accelerating the end of the blue star's life."
You obviously don't understand the gravity of the situation.
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Re:Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:5, Informative)
Given the blue star is 25x Suns, and the black hole is 9x Suns, also given blue stars are rather short-lived, chances are there's going to be a pair of black holes orbiting each other in the end.
Re:Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, given Hawking radiation, in the end of the end of the end, it will explode after shedding its mass.
And according to Penrose, after the end of the end of the end, a “new” universe might be able to see its explosion drawn out across the horizon.
I’m beginning to think the universe is just bad with endings.
Re:Poor blue star, she will be eaten one day. (Score:5, Informative)
Funny thing is that depending in if/how much stellar mass is being drawn from the blue star by the black hole, it might actually increase the life expectancy of the blue star.
Doemant (Score:5, Informative)
A black hole is considered dormant if it does not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which is how such black holes are typically detected.
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This black hole is quite a masshole.
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Does not emit.... or we cannot detect? Since xrays come from the spinning disk, they are probably directional.
Re:Doemant (Score:4, Interesting)
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A black hole is considered dormant if it does not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which is how such black holes are typically detected.
Which I think is not so much an attribute of the black hole, but the amount of material in space around the black hole to be consumed. So not so much that the black hole is dormant, but it isn't currently leaving a detectable "wake"?
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So basically no significant accretion disc and not much feeding going on then. It's interesting that they don't think the star went nova... I didn't think a star just plain collapsing into a black hole was even an option?
The black hole lost much weight (Score:4, Funny)
Because it was eating light.
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Alas, not much weight because the metabolic rate of a black hole is exceptionally low. Non-zero, but irrelevant compared to the Cosmic Microwave Background at present. Give it a few trillion years, it'll slim down.
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When people have a high metabolic rate, they are eating a lot.
Musk will visit it with his rocket (Score:2)
But he'll get Elongated.
Re:Kinda like Stacey Abrams (Score:4, Informative)
Your jealously is showing.
As a Harry S. Truman Scholar, Abrams studied public policy at the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs, where she earned a Master of Public Affairs degree in 1998. In 1999, she earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School
Re: Kinda like Stacey Abrams (Score:3)
Re: Kinda like Stacey Abrams (Score:4, Insightful)
"The difference between the RNC and DNC is that the RNC thinks that it should be private giving which is what Jesus taught"
Jesus taught that the government and its leaders exist to serve the needs of the people:.Repeatedly.
"as it removes people's ability to give personally, as what they would give is instead absorbed by the government."
Except Jesus never said anything like that ever. That's pure rationalization. In fact Jesus repeatedly said that even the absolute destitute were still able to easily satisify their duty to give personally by what acts of charity and kindness they could manage - in other words, nobody can ever have their ability to give personally "removed". It's nonsense. If anything, he taught that the less you have the more a small act of charity meant. He also taught that one should pay their taxes.
Beyond all that, in practical terms in the current system, the poor are not impacted by taxes. It's a burden borne by the middle and upper classes, who even after all the taxes, still have ample relative to the majority who are poorer than them. So to argue Jesus was basically a fiscal conservative or a libertarian is pure nonsense.
Of course, Jesus deference to authority also led him to teach that slaves should obey their masters, and that the authority of the masters (and all authorities including governments) are itself god's divine creation, even when they were oppressive... so I'm not convinced Jesus is the guy we should be listening to here, but if you are going to cite Jesus, you can't just put words in his mouth to make him say whatever you want him to have said.
He never taught that the government taxes were wrong because it removed one's ability to be charitable.
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Orbiting Black Holes? (Score:1)
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