Giant black hole ejected from its host galaxy

[PhaedrusXY]

Anyone else find this scary?

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/05/monster-black-hole-ejected-from-host-galaxy/1?csp=outbrain&csp=obnetwork

[skydragonknight]

Yeah, it's scary. I mean, might wake up some spring morning 271,791,044 years from now to find myself dead!

Though seriously, I'm sure it was just slingshot-ed out of that galaxy by making a tight pass to the galaxy's core black hole, some 100x larger.

[Agita]

Not very. One, no matter how fast it is, it can't go faster than the speed of light. Even assuming that speed (which it won't reach due to its immense mass), it would take over 600,000 years to reach us. Second, that's assuming it's even pointed in our general direction. A black hole still has to be reasonably close (on a cosmic scale, of course) to do what it does best. If it's off by even a few degrees, considering the distance, it won't even come close to our galaxy. Third, even if it does, and ignoring that by the time it drops in to say hi humans may or may not have died out, by then our solar system will have moved too, so there's no guarantee we'll be anywhere near where we are now.

In all honesty, two huge black holes, colliding in the center of a galaxy, resulting in one of them getting kicked out? I'd say the proper term is 'wicked cool'.

[Solo]

Intergalactic billiards.

[skydragonknight]

Stuff

And when it *does* get here, time dilation and whatever will slow our doom down further.

Intergalactic billiards.

Was that Futurama or Hitchhiker's Guide?

[Agita]

I only remember intergalactic marbles from MIB.

[PhaedrusXY]

Yeah, it's scary. I mean, might wake up some spring morning 271,791,044 years from now to find myself dead!

Though seriously, I'm sure it was just slingshot-ed out of that galaxy by making a tight pass to the galaxy's core black hole, some 100x larger.

Didn't read the article, did you? This was the galaxy's core black hole. They think this was probably the result of a galctic merger, with the central supermassive black holes also merging, and their combined kinetic energy resulting in them being ejected from the galaxy.



And I'm not worried about this black hole. (Or even actually worried at all...) I just find it a bit disturbing that a supermassive black hole can be ejected into space, presumably without a visible envelope. Once it leaves its former host galaxy completely, and consumes any gas it took with it, it would presumably be invisible, except for gravitational lensing effects. So there could be one of these things bearing down on our little galactic arm right now, and we might not even know it.

[Sinfire Titan]

Well, consider this: That Black Hole collided with the other one eons ago. We're just now seeing the residual images of the collison. The fact that we can see at all means the black hole is not blocking our line of sight (which would prevent our technology from seeing the galaxy behind the hole). This means it isn't heading straight towards us.


Of course, this is all an assumption. I'm not an expert in astronomy, so take this as you will.

[Agita]

That's a pretty good point, actually. Didn't consider the whole space lag thing.

And I'm not worried about this black hole. (Or even actually worried at all...) I just find it a bit disturbing that a supermassive black hole can be ejected into space, presumably without a visible envelope. Once it leaves its former host galaxy completely, and consumes any gas it took with it, it would presumably be invisible, except for gravitational lensing effects. So there could be one of these things bearing down on our little galactic arm right now, and we might not even know it.

Well, all black holes are basically invisible except for gravitational lensing, so there's not really any relation to the article there. And even if we knew it was coming, it wouldn't really help us. It'd probably be similar to noticing you've been shot in the head from behind. You know you're fucked, but you can't really do anything about it.

[skydragonknight]

I skimmed the first half of the article. And if it resulted from a collision I'm even less worried since we aren't supposed to collide with Andromeda for another 4.5 billion years.

The black hole in the article was moving at about 1/500th of the speed of light, so we'd at least notice stars missing from the sky 1000s of years before it hit us.

[veekie]

Yeah, this is more fascinating than it is scary(unless you were in the neighbourhood, but at the same time IIRC the level of radiation in galactic centers make it a bit more unlikely for life to arise than usual.).

I want to see what happens if two black holes of that magnitude collide head on with momentums nearly canceling out.

[McPoyo]

Here's something else to throw in to the discussion: Anyone see the recent article claiming to solve the discrepancy between quantum physics and the general theory of relativity, which also sparked a "Black holes contain other universe-like contents" theory?

[Flay Crimsonwind]

Intergalactic billiards.

Was that Futurama or Hitchhiker's Guide?

Red Dwarf did it first, I believe.

Or, it's close.

Mind posting that article, McPoyo?

[McPoyo]

http://m.io9.com/5586017/was-our-universe-born-inside-a-black-hole-in-another-universe

It's the mobile link, because I am on my Droid (but when, since January, have I not?), but it should work the same for the desktop users.

[veekie]

Yeah, I remember that one. Highly theoretical because theres currently no way to see past the event horizon, but I think the math works out.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Not very. One, no matter how fast it is, it can't go faster than the speed of light. Even assuming that speed (which it won't reach due to its immense mass), it would take over 600,000 years to reach us.

Technically, if it were coming right at us, it would have been coming right at us for the last 600,000 years, but the light from it would only reach us now.  So going at an appreciable fraction of c, it could arrive next week.

[Agita]

Not very. One, no matter how fast it is, it can't go faster than the speed of light. Even assuming that speed (which it won't reach due to its immense mass), it would take over 600,000 years to reach us.

Technically, if it were coming right at us, it would have been coming right at us for the last 600,000 years, but the light from it would only reach us now.  So going at an appreciable fraction of c, it could arrive next week.

Yeah, I was just reminded of that earlier in the thread. However, someone mentioned it travelling at 1/500 the speed of light (although I didn't see that in the article). Even at c/2, it would still be 300,000 light years away from us. I'm no physicist (yet), but I doubt that it coul even have accelerated tot hat speed just from the slingshot effect, and given its mass, there's little else that could accelerate it further.

[altpersona]

a. i dont believe in black holes, as advertised.

b. im pretty sure the more mass you have, the lower your effective speed limit is.

    a particle with nearly no mass can get close to the SoL, but the energy required to reach the same speed with a brick/planet/star/hole is prohibitive.

but, what do i know, im failing college algebra , i could have sworn i was good at math..

[Sinfire Titan]

Not very. One, no matter how fast it is, it can't go faster than the speed of light. Even assuming that speed (which it won't reach due to its immense mass), it would take over 600,000 years to reach us.

Technically, if it were coming right at us, it would have been coming right at us for the last 600,000 years, but the light from it would only reach us now.  So going at an appreciable fraction of c, it could arrive next week.

Yeah, I was just reminded of that earlier in the thread. However, someone mentioned it travelling at 1/500 the speed of light (although I didn't see that in the article). Even at c/2, it would still be 300,000 light years away from us. I'm no physicist (yet), but I doubt that it coul even have accelerated tot hat speed just from the slingshot effect, and given its mass, there's little else that could accelerate it further.

How the hell would it Slingshot? It has more mass than the average star in it's path, meaning if anything it's going to be throwing things out of it's orbit (or sucking them in if they get too close).

Here's something else to throw in to the discussion: Anyone see the recent article claiming to solve the discrepancy between quantum physics and the general theory of relativity, which also sparked a "Black holes contain other universe-like contents" theory?

Technically, a Black Hole is just a cosmic trash compactor. It's a single object with a mass far greater than any planet or star, thus it has a stronger gravitational pull. Once you hit the center of it, the gravity has compressed you into near-nothing. You're still there, just bite-sized. We can't see the results because A: Too small and B: Light can't escape it's gravity.

[McPoyo]

Not very. One, no matter how fast it is, it can't go faster than the speed of light. Even assuming that speed (which it won't reach due to its immense mass), it would take over 600,000 years to reach us.

Technically, if it were coming right at us, it would have been coming right at us for the last 600,000 years, but the light from it would only reach us now.  So going at an appreciable fraction of c, it could arrive next week.

Yeah, I was just reminded of that earlier in the thread. However, someone mentioned it travelling at 1/500 the speed of light (although I didn't see that in the article). Even at c/2, it would still be 300,000 light years away from us. I'm no physicist (yet), but I doubt that it coul even have accelerated tot hat speed just from the slingshot effect, and given its mass, there's little else that could accelerate it further.

How the hell would it Slingshot? It has more mass than the average star in it's path, meaning if anything it's going to be throwing things out of it's orbit (or sucking them in if they get too close).

Here's something else to throw in to the discussion: Anyone see the recent article claiming to solve the discrepancy between quantum physics and the general theory of relativity, which also sparked a "Black holes contain other universe-like contents" theory?

Technically, a Black Hole is just a cosmic trash compactor. It's a single object with a mass far greater than any planet or star, thus it has a stronger gravitational pull. Once you hit the center of it, the gravity has compressed you into near-nothing. You're still there, just bite-sized. We can't see the results because A: Too small and B: Light can't escape it's gravity.

Though x-ray emissions can.