Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

livescience.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#11

Post by skywal_l »

jshzglr wrote: post #2

Does anyone else ever think about some unseen space monstrosity taking us out in the blink of an eye?

It's possible but improbable. When the Andromeda galaxy and the milky collide, there will be comparatively very few actual star collisions because galaxies are mostly made of empty space.

There is a much higher chance of being hit by an object that comes from our own solar system because it would have the same trajectory, speed, etc. I mean those things are following us permanently! And we know this because it already happened.

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#12

Post by wahern »

barbazoo wrote: post #8
wahern wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other interstellar objects like comets, asteroids, planets, and dwarf stars roaming around that could take us out at any moment, directly or indirectly. A blackhole isn't much different than any of those in terms of consequence. The same process that would fling a blackhole around can fling anything around, and in theory primordial blackholes could be as small as most of those other objects.

Is there a chance that there's something out there so fast that we wouldn't see it coming early enough, and big enough to significantly impact us? Like 2023 BU earlier this year that almost hit us less than a week after discovery.

The chance is >0, but beyond that it's just speculation--some of it very fancy, but speculation all the same.

For example, for awhile there was a theory that mass extinction events were correlated to the solar system's orbit as it passed through the galactic plane. That model, which is now largely rejected (per Wikipdia), predicted periodic relative increases and decreases in event rates across time spans down to several millions of years, but pinning down hard numbers was highly suspect even then--among other reasons, our solar system has only completed a couple dozen orbits since forming.

We just don't know enough to be able to say anything reliable except in broad, abstract terms with little meaning or substance. I'm squarely in the multi-planet advocacy camp, but IMNSHO if I or anyone else starts throwing around figures, conclusions, or even deductions, beware.

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#14

Post by deafpolygon »

barbazoo wrote: post #8
wahern wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other interstellar objects like comets, asteroids, planets, and dwarf stars roaming around that could take us out at any moment, directly or indirectly. A blackhole isn't much different than any of those in terms of consequence. The same process that would fling a blackhole around can fling anything around, and in theory primordial blackholes could be as small as most of those other objects.

Is there a chance that there's something out there so fast that we wouldn't see it coming early enough, and big enough to significantly impact us? Like 2023 BU earlier this year that almost hit us less than a week after discovery.

There's a chance it already has, and we're just ghosts walking around unaware of our own demise.

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#15

Post by POPOSYS »

evulhotdog wrote: post #3
jshzglr wrote: post #2

Does anyone else ever think about some unseen space monstrosity taking us out in the blink of an eye?

Yes, and it’s absolutely terrifying. I know at that point I wouldn’t feel anything but it’s depressing to know that everything you have, and will ever know, could be destroyed in an instant.

But that is life - you will die at the end. This is not a reason to be depressive, there is a way to find freedom accepting the volatile nature of everything. Enjoy your life, do not harm anybody and do positive work.

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#17

Post by nsonha »

evulhotdog wrote: post #3
jshzglr wrote: post #2

Does anyone else ever think about some unseen space monstrosity taking us out in the blink of an eye?

Yes, and it’s absolutely terrifying. I know at that point I wouldn’t feel anything but it’s depressing to know that everything you have, and will ever know, could be destroyed in an instant.

Not sure of the math but definitely not an instant, at that scale.

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#19

Post by [deleted] »

nsonha wrote: post #17
evulhotdog wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and it’s absolutely terrifying. I know at that point I wouldn’t feel anything but it’s depressing to know that everything you have, and will ever know, could be destroyed in an instant.

Not sure of the math but definitely not an instant, at that scale.

[deleted]

Re: 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20M suns found speeding through space

#20

Post by MichaelZuo »

nsonha wrote: post #17
evulhotdog wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and it’s absolutely terrifying. I know at that point I wouldn’t feel anything but it’s depressing to know that everything you have, and will ever know, could be destroyed in an instant.

Not sure of the math but definitely not an instant, at that scale.

At 10% the speed of light, an object would traverse the distance of the diameter of the Earth in ~ 0.04 seconds. Which almost certainly would be too quick to be perceived by anyone.
Post reply on HN