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

Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

hubblesite.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 191 posts

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#21

Post by irrational »

intrasight wrote: post #18
irrational wrote: post #12

Imagine intelligent life arising on a planet around one of those stars. I wonder how long it would take their astronomers to figure out where they were.

If there is intelligent life, isnt it likely that there will be similarity in the stars and planets. And those folk have a galactic superhighway!

Would there be a similarity of stars? We see lots of stars because we are in the middle of a galaxy, but they are outside of a galaxy. They could see the galaxy they came from in parts of their sky, but would it really be like actually being in the galaxy? I'd imagine not. It might only be visible from one hemisphere of the planet, depending on how the ecliptic was aligned. The other hemisphere might only see black, with maybe one or more moons and other planets.

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#23

Post by [deleted] »

andrewstuart wrote: post #20

If you lived on a planet going around one of those stars it sure would be hard to make sense of the universe. "Oh I have it! In addition to all the incomprehensible things in the universe, we happen to live in a star system that is extremely, extremely rare and exeptional, unlike the rest of the universe!"

[deleted]

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#24

Post by iamgopal »

unrealp wrote: post #22

I wonder if this is an opportunity to detect intelligent life. If the black hole is affecting any intelligent life on the way, they might do something to save themselves or their planet, which might be detectable?

Or this itself just two alien race fighting with each other. Wait till we see another black hole going other way.

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#25

Post by blacksmith_tb »

unrealp wrote: post #22

I wonder if this is an opportunity to detect intelligent life. If the black hole is affecting any intelligent life on the way, they might do something to save themselves or their planet, which might be detectable?

If they could do something on a scale to stop (or even avoid) a runaway black hole they'd have to be enormously powerful. I would think even for species well beyond our capabilities the only option would be to flee.

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#27

Post by kevinventullo »

andrewstuart wrote: post #20

If you lived on a planet going around one of those stars it sure would be hard to make sense of the universe. "Oh I have it! In addition to all the incomprehensible things in the universe, we happen to live in a star system that is extremely, extremely rare and exeptional, unlike the rest of the universe!"

To be fair, that does seem to describe the existence of life on our own planet.

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#28

Post by chasil »

andrewstuart wrote: post #20

If you lived on a planet going around one of those stars it sure would be hard to make sense of the universe. "Oh I have it! In addition to all the incomprehensible things in the universe, we happen to live in a star system that is extremely, extremely rare and exeptional, unlike the rest of the universe!"

Before any of that is possible, a "Cambrian Explosion" is required.

It may be that prokaryotic life is common, but the mitochondria and plastids of eukaryotes took a very long time to emerge (absent for more than half of the total habitable life of the earth).

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#29

Post by dividefuel »

irrational wrote: post #12

Imagine intelligent life arising on a planet around one of those stars. I wonder how long it would take their astronomers to figure out where they were.

This would be an interesting premise for a science fiction story. You could imagine a species realizing that the only way to survive long term is to keep hopping to new star systems every billion or so years. And when they get ready to hop to another system for the first time, they realize almost all the viable star systems are already colonized by past species who came to the same conclusion

Re: Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

#30

Post by randmeerkat »

anigbrowl wrote: post #16
echelon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The figures in the primary literature are great for scientists and reasonably educated adults, but they're trying to capture the imaginations of children and those not so scientifically literate. It's understandable. If you show the actual figures to a layman, many of them would respond in disbelief or disappointment. You have to build a bridge, and that begins with illustration. It's a communication and education to…

Then use both. Many science 'educators' do a terrible job of dumbing things down so much that kids who want to pursue their interest farther get filtered when they hit the scholarly literature unless they are lucky enough to have imaginative teachers.

> Then use both. Many science 'educators' do a terrible job of dumbing things down so much that kids who want to pursue their interest farther get filtered when they hit the scholarly literature unless they are lucky enough to have imaginative teachers.

Exactly… I never understood the point of making science more accessible to the masses, if the compromise was making the actual science inaccessible to the inquiring mind. There’s no reason there can’t be a simple abstract followed by the actual science and associated images / maths.

Post reply on HN