Black hole (finally) confirmed in Center of Milky Way

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Black hole (finally) confirmed in Center of Milky Way

Postby Baconsticks » Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:29 pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7774287.stm
There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a 16-year study by German astronomers has confirmed.
They tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.
The black hole, said to be 27,000 light years from Earth, is four million times bigger than the Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.
Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.
According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.
'The black pearl'
Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.
"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.
"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".
The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.
"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.
"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."
Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Observatory (Eso).
Took long enough to confirm. Oh well, I have another thing to keep me awake at night now.
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Postby Segovia » Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:38 pm

Please, even I knew that. I agree it took way too long to confirm it. There's a theory that there's a black hole here on Earth. They theorized that it's somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.

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Postby Dr. Sticks » Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:45 pm

except, there is not a black hole in the bermuda triangle. there is one in the center of our galaxy.
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Postby MuffinSticks » Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:56 pm

I thought that was obvious enough to begin with. How could the center of any galaxy not have a black hole? Those scientists and their need to positively confirm everything.
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Postby gforce422 » Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:04 pm

There's a theory that there's a black hole here on Earth. They theorized that it's somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.
There won't be any black holes here on earth until they get the LHC running again. Then we'll have very small black holes for millionths of a second. :P
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Re: Black hole (finally) confirmed in Center of Milky Way

Postby RocketGirl » Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:52 pm

Oh well, I have another thing to keep me awake at night now.
...over what?

I hope it's not fear; even if there IS a black hole in the center of the galaxy, and even IF it would eventually engulf this planet, Earth is on the outer spiral arm of the galaxy...you will be LONG dead before you'd have anything to worry about personally.

So...I hope it's more a matter of scientific and cosmic ponderables keeping you up. Just sayin'...
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Re: Black hole (finally) confirmed in Center of Milky Way

Postby Baconsticks » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:24 am

Oh well, I have another thing to keep me awake at night now.
...over what?

I hope it's not fear; even if there IS a black hole in the center of the galaxy, and even IF it would eventually engulf this planet, Earth is on the outer spiral arm of the galaxy...you will be LONG dead before you'd have anything to worry about personally.

So...I hope it's more a matter of scientific and cosmic ponderables keeping you up. Just sayin'...
I was being sarcastic, but whatever. I'd be more worried about things like the big rip, gamma ray bursts, and that really mean lady that works at the local Wendy's.
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Postby Rooster » Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:51 am

I thought they confirmed this years ago when they saw a quasar turn into one and it's debris form around it in a spiral?

I mean, there was a BBC documentary about this back in like 2002.

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Re: Black hole (finally) confirmed in Center of Milky Way

Postby RocketGirl » Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:58 am

Oh well, I have another thing to keep me awake at night now.
...over what?

I hope it's not fear; even if there IS a black hole in the center of the galaxy, and even IF it would eventually engulf this planet, Earth is on the outer spiral arm of the galaxy...you will be LONG dead before you'd have anything to worry about personally.

So...I hope it's more a matter of scientific and cosmic ponderables keeping you up. Just sayin'...
I was being sarcastic, but whatever.
People need to stop doing that over the internet without using some sort of emoticon to substitute for tone of voice...I'm just sayin'... :-P
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Postby Dr. Sticks » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:12 pm

I feel like I've always been able to discern sarcasm on the internet, although it may not have been "always"
http://www.spingain.com/?ref=146518
Well put doog. You never posted anything offensive whatsoever
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Postby RocketGirl » Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:59 pm

I feel like I've always been able to discern sarcasm on the internet, although it may not have been "always"
I prefer to take people at their word if they don't make obvious with their emoticons that they're engaging in sarcasm.

Not only does it make MY life easier when people start using the internet equivalent of tone of voice, but it can also goad to fury those who wish to be taken as they'd intended--sarcastically--but who are instead treated as complete chowderheads who actually MEANT that which they'd intended as sarcasm.

One takes one's pleasures where one can. :-P :twisted:
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Postby Bocaj Claw » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:43 am

Wasn't there a terrible b-movie recently about a black hole in Los Angeles?
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Postby Trance » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:07 am

In related news, scientists predict that Earth will soon fall into giant black hole. Men aroused; women, not impressed.

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Postby Bocaj Claw » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:48 am

I hope Earth uses protection. Mostly because a planet sized condom BOGGLES the mind.
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Postby Doc Sigma » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:45 pm

Wasn't there a terrible b-movie recently about a black hole in Los Angeles?
"Beverly Hills Cop" was not a B movie.


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