OT: The News Thread

[uncus]

I have read that there are some black holes we know of, that are more than 20 million miles across.
That might sound like a fair distance, but considering that Neptune is a billion miles away, puts it into perspective.
I have also wondered if sagittarius r at the center of our galaxy, has the power to eventually draw us into its grasp.
I have read that the astral belt, surrounding this black hole, travel at more than a million miles an hour.
Really interesting stuff.
I have often wondered if the light we are now seeing, even from something as well known as Orion, has stopped. Even if it exploded years ago, we wouldnt see the results for awhile. The speed of light is constant, and cannot move any faster.
I love astronomy and the possibilities lol.

 

[UWHabs]

Not sure what's more mind-bending. How far away that black hole is, or the fact that it's so big that it'd encompass our entire solar system.

There's just some things that are too insane to think about.

I mean, my mind sometimes gets a little crazy when I think about how far you go on a regular flight. Like, I flew back from Europe this week and was travelling at like 800kph, travelling 5000 KM, meaning that even a crazy German going full out on the Autobahn would need a full day of driving without stops to cover it. And I saw up and just watched some movies and ate some food.

Now that's not even close to the distance to the moon, which is almost 100x further, and even that's just next door to us. Earth to Mars is many times more than that, and that distance is still calculated in light minutes.

Then you go out and talk about solar system distances, distances to the next solar systems, to the next galaxies, etc... and sometimes I actually feel sad, because the distances are just too insane to comprehend. Like, I think how cool all these sci-fi shows and movies are, exploring new worlds, seeing other systems. And then I look at our current technology and it's like crossing the Atlantic Ocean without having learned to make a tool yet. How cool would it be to hibernate and wake up 50, 100, 1000 years from now and see what has been discovered. Sigh.

 

[MindzEye]

I have wondered if sagittarius r at the center of our galaxy, has the power to eventually draw us into its grasp.

Nah, that's not really how black holes/gravity works. For quick example, if our Sun was big enough to collapse into a black hole, and did right now, it wouldn't draw us in or alter our orbit at all. It would be comprised of the exact same amount of matter as it was before and exert the exact same amount of gravitational influence as it did before.

As long as you're outside the event horizon, nothing really changes (though orbiting a super massive can have some interesting physics involved)

 

[uncus]

It really makes you wonder if someday, maybe the next hundred years, mankind (oops, peoplekind) will be able to travel to other galaxies and even more exciting, to the precipice of the beginning.
To be able to MAYBE cross the radiation belt where many physicists proclaim that the beginning came to fruition.
To be able to go to other planets, and explore their dynamics of life and survival.
The universe is filled with life, not just the life forms that we so desperately want to find, but the very basics and fundamental forms to begin their history

 

[zeke]

50 million light years away.

The human mind struggles with the concept of distance like that. To use the only standard measurement that science for the masses programs seems to understand how to use, 1 light year is equal to the length of 103,463,806,568,031 football fields.

The mind starts processing numbers completely differently (I'm talking chemically inside the brain neurons) once the numbers get up into the low thousands.

 

[Altair]

stupid flat earthers.

Technically this problem would be solved with the use of a single mirror, but at that point we are making that more complicated than what they actually did.

A more accurate scenario would be a photo of a dimple on a golf ball ABOVE Vancouver from a location ABOVE Toronto.

 

[uncus]

Nah, that's not really how black holes/gravity works. For quick example, if our Sun was big enough to collapse into a black hole, and did right now, it wouldn't draw us in or alter our orbit at all. It would be comprised of the exact same amount of matter as it was before and exert the exact same amount of gravitational influence as it did before.

As long as you're outside the event horizon, nothing really changes (though orbiting a super massive can have some interesting physics involved)

Gravity is the one constant in our understanding.
But MZ how is it that a giant black hole or any black hole for that matter, cannot gain in its mass.
I equate, and very simply I might add, that if an object is swallowing foreign objects then would it not gradually increase in size, both in mass and weight?
I know that are rules that we follow, both mathematical and theoretical, but if these hole do travel and consume, then wouldnt it right to say that the probability of conflict with one these behemoths is a possibility.

 

[uncus]

Sorry all, but this stuff interests the heck out of me lol.
Trying to get a simple mind like my own, to understand the basic principles as we understand in our world, makes my day.
Have a great day all

 

[uncus]

Technically this problem would be solved with the use of a single mirror, but at that point we are making that more complicated than what they actually did.

A more accurate scenario would be a photo of a dimple on a golf ball ABOVE Vancouver from a location ABOVE Toronto.

Didnt they use a telescope that is wired together with another telescope that has somehow wired a large volume of powerful mirrors into a quasi series circuit that can help them to see the farthest reaches of space at this time?
Damn this world has some brilliant people, makes me proud to say that I am partially human

 

[MindzEye]

Gravity is the one constant in our understanding.
But MZ how is it that a giant black hole or any black hole for that matter, cannot gain in its mass.
I equate, and very simply I might add, that if an object is swallowing foreign objects then would it not gradually increase in size, both in mass and weight?
I know that are rules that we follow, both mathematical and theoretical, but if these hole do travel and consume, then wouldnt it right to say that the probability of conflict with one these behemoths is a possibility.

No, because the mass near the centre of the galaxy that is already on trajectory to get absorbed by the super massive in the middle (if there's any left that hasn't been) is already exerting the exact same amount of gravitational force pulling us in that direction as it would after it got absorbed. Mass pulled into a black hole exerts the exact same amount of influence before that event than it does after.

The best way to think about how a black hole gains size is to think of it as cleaning out it's neighbourhood but only it's neighbourhood. If mass strays into it's neighbourhood (due to orbital paths) the black hole's gravity will capture it (usually after numerous fly bys).

The one thing that changes a bit as a black hole absorbs mass is the centrality of that mass. At a distance (outside of the orbital path of any of the mass involved), there's as close to zero effect as possible on object....but in closer proximities (within viable orbital paths of these objects), multiple bodies of mass merging into a larger mass can alter the orbital paths of items already highly affected, and pull them in to be enveloped and added to the mass of the black hole. To give a better visual representation of what I'm talking about:

Some of those stars orbiting that black hole (marked by the little star icon) are in a controlled, safe and stable orbit. But some of those stars clearly aren't. When they finally succumb to the gravity of the black hole and are absorbed, the centrality of the total mass will alter the stable orbits just a little bit (as the previous orbit of the star would have created slight and irregular wobbles in the orbital path instead). Keep adding mass and sooner or later you'll reach a point where the stable orbits stop being stable and they'll slowly make their way (again, through numerous fly bys in worsening and worsening orbits) towards oblivion.

At some point though, all of the orbiting items get absorbed and there's nothing else close enough to have it's orbit altered by the centralized gravitational pull of the black hole. That's where the vast majority of mature galaxies are at.

 

[Altair]

No, because the mass near the centre of the galaxy that is already on trajectory to get absorbed by the super massive in the middle (if there's any left that hasn't been) is already exerting the exact same amount of gravitational force pulling us in that direction as it would after it got absorbed. Mass pulled into a black hole exerts the exact same amount of influence before that event than it does after.

The best way to think about how a black hole gains size is to think of it as cleaning out it's neighbourhood but only it's neighbourhood. If mass strays into it's neighbourhood (due to orbital paths) the black hole's gravity will capture it (usually after numerous fly bys).

The one thing that changes a bit as a black hole absorbs mass is the centrality of that mass. At a distance (outside of the orbital path of any of the mass involved), there's as close to zero effect as possible on object....but in closer proximities (within viable orbital paths of these objects), multiple bodies of mass merging into a larger mass can alter the orbital paths of items already highly affected, and pull them in to be enveloped and added to the mass of the black hole. To give a better visual representation of what I'm talking about:

Some of those stars orbiting that black hole (marked by the little star icon) are in a controlled, safe and stable orbit. But some of those stars clearly aren't. When they finally succumb to the gravity of the black hole and are absorbed, the centrality of the total mass will alter the stable orbits just a little bit (as the previous orbit of the star would have created slight and irregular wobbles in the orbital path instead). Keep adding mass and sooner or later you'll reach a point where the stable orbits stop being stable and they'll slowly make their way (again, through numerous fly bys in worsening and worsening orbits) towards oblivion.

At some point though, all of the orbiting items get absorbed and there's nothing else close enough to have it's orbit altered by the centralized gravitational pull of the black hole. That's where the vast majority of mature galaxies are at.

Don't forget to take into account that black holes are not stationary.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-supermassive-black-hole-discovery-a7650656.html

 

[MindzEye]

Don't forget to take into account that black holes are not stationary.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-supermassive-black-hole-discovery-a7650656.html

Yeah, that too. But nothing is stationary, it kind of goes without saying.

How we're taught about our solar system in school

How it actually moves

And now do about 100 Billion of those all roughly moving in the same direction around the galactic centre similar to how we move around the Sun. I love this shit and hate it all at once. It's fascinating, but nothing makes me feel dumb quite like trying to conceptualize it all.

 

[Altair]

Yeah, that too. But nothing is stationary, it kind of goes without saying.

How we're taught about our solar system in school

How it actually moves

And now do about 100 Billion of those all roughly moving in the same direction around the galactic centre similar to how we move around the Sun. I love this shit and hate it all at once. It's fascinating, but nothing makes me feel dumb quite like trying to conceptualize it all.

Yes.

Drawing attention to your second clip, it's not inconceivable that a black hole many times larger than our sun kinda wanders into a solar system the like ours and more or less eats it.

Now even if that happens, the sheer vastness of space means it's a more or less insignificant event (except for the heavenly bodies in said solar system) but the potential for black holes to grow significantly is there.

 

[zeke]

all that movement kind of kills the idea of time travel.

as you're 99% sure to end up travelling into the middle of space.

 

[Altair]

all that movement kind of kills the idea of time travel.

as you're 99% sure to end up travelling into the middle of space.

As long as you factor in time and space down to the foot you're alright. Off by six feet and you end up underground.

 

[Volcanologist]

If you can sense and travel 4-dimensionally that wouldn't be a problem. you could select where in the timeline you want to go for that 3D location, while seeing them all at once.

 

[zeke]

but if you wanted to travel 100 years forward in time, and end up in the exact same space - the distance you'd need to travel would be mindboggling.

 

[UWHabs]

but if you wanted to travel 100 years forward in time, and end up in the exact same space - the distance you'd need to travel would be mindboggling.

Yeah, like, it's crazy to think of that. Not even counting earth moving around the run or the sun through the Galaxy, the Earth still rotates at like 1000 mph, or about twice the speed of a plane. Like, if you time travelled one second, just factoring in Earth's rotation and nothing more, you basically go from the CN Tower to Union station. If you're off by like a millisecond, then suddenly you're smashing through the walls of where you wanted to end up, or end up appearing in the middle of the ocean.

 

[zeke]

Yeah, like, it's crazy to think of that. Not even counting earth moving around the run or the sun through the Galaxy, the Earth still rotates at like 1000 mph, or about twice the speed of a plane. Like, if you time travelled one second, just factoring in Earth's rotation and nothing more, you basically go from the CN Tower to Union station. If you're off by like a millisecond, then suddenly you're smashing through the walls of where you wanted to end up, or end up appearing in the middle of the ocean.

and then you realize that the galaxy itself is moving faster than any of them.

 

[Altair]

The amount of precision and energy required would be mind boggling but its still worth it to kill baby Hitler.