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Hubble sees possible runaway black hole creating a trail of stars

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

#181

Post by [deleted] »

abecedarius wrote: post #158
backpackviolet wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would it be like for civilization to have evolved on a world with a moon (or other large natural satellite) in geosynchronous orbit. There’s just this … thing, in the sky, hovering over one spot. How sacred would that spot be to those people

Good one. The novel Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury had such a moon (the Scowlmoon) as part of the worldbuilding. For another, imagine having a moon so big it can completely cover the sun... and just the right size and distance to only block the photosphere, leaving the corona visible without instruments. What a show that'd be, what wild myths the life there might make up.

[deleted]

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

#182

Post by smcnally »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #146
joshuahedlund wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Near the center of a galaxy, where stars are so closely packed together that the night sky is filled with bright lights, perhaps illuminating their world to what we experience around twilight, or even brighter. My understanding is this is unfavorable for life due to any planets being constantly sanitized by too many nearby stars going supernova > Far removed from the center of a galaxy, or even on a rogue star that…

In a big-enough universe, all sorts of unlikely things end up happening.

“Even when you’re one in a million, there are 6,000 others just like you” at cosmic scale.

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

#183

Post by richardw »

colordrops wrote: post #157
richardw wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is “proper” vs eg the others on this list? Honest question. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_science_fiction

Did you read the wiki link? There's very little, and much of it is more kafka-esque political commentary rather than hard scifi. I don't know, I lived in China for 9 years, and scifi and fantasy media were highly discouraged by the party (as mentioned in the wiki link), and no one I knew had anything to recommend that was originally written in Chinese. When Three Body Problem came out, people went nuts. Every nerd an…

Thank you. It’s amazing that +1bn people with theoretical access to the world’s resources didn’t spontaneously create 10000 sci-fi books. Similar isolation the other way around. Societies are still so isolated (language, culture, political leanings) despite so much integration.

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

#184

Post by Maursault »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #175
Maursault wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are not "different semantics." There is semantics. It's a mass noun and singular. If you're attempting to hand wave by calling my comment a semantic argument, and therefore insignificant, then you are simply incorrect. Semantics are of vital importance to language and communication. Without semantics, no one would have any idea what anyone else was saying. And my use of "merge" was a pun. Woosh!

I'll try to be helpful and not combative. I think it is a matter of semantics because it seemed like you have a different understanding of the meaning of the word emerge then the person you are responding to. Within the context of the original post, the word emerge has nothing to do with the physical location of mitochondria and the eukaryotic cell. Instead, the meaning of emergence was to come into existence from no…

> Similarly, I would argue that a "mitochondria" not living in a parent so is not a mitochondria at all.

I'm not sure why you're continuing to try to make it clear to me that you're not wrong when we simply disagree, but your statement here employs nominal fallacy, or naming fallacy. Mitochondria is that same bacteria that it used to be prior to entering into a symbiotic relationship within the cell. It's a relatively new scientific revelation that mitochondrion organelles lived as bacteria discrete from its current function inside a cell. We may call this that and that this, to keep track of function, but it doesn't mean that a spade isn't a shovel.

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

#185

Post by dsq »

Razengan wrote: post #71
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?

What if this is CAUSED by intelligent life? Maybe this is part of a galactic-scale engineering project? Actual pic btw: https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01GWQ1FTQCCZS72F2GPD4QTJXK.png

Thanks for the pic. Actually much more exciting than the artist's imagination.

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

#186

Post by yencabulator »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #154
once_inc wrote: post #86

For those replying to this article with "imagine living there", please note that if life is a verdant, resilient and common as many of us hope it is, the universe might contain quite a number of insane places to live: - Near the center of a galaxy, where stars are so closely packed together that the night sky is filled with bright lights, perhaps illuminating their world to what we experience around twilight, or even…

> Far removed from the center of a galaxy, or even on a rogue star that has escaped its galaxy early on. Very few stars visible in the sky. Wouldn't this be approximately the same star density we see when NOT looking in the plane of the milky way?

We are still inside the milky way galaxy. It surrounds us, even if it is denser in one direction.

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

#187

Post by dTal »

richardw wrote: post #183
colordrops wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the wiki link? There's very little, and much of it is more kafka-esque political commentary rather than hard scifi. I don't know, I lived in China for 9 years, and scifi and fantasy media were highly discouraged by the party (as mentioned in the wiki link), and no one I knew had anything to recommend that was originally written in Chinese. When Three Body Problem came out, people went nuts. Every nerd an…

Thank you. It’s amazing that +1bn people with theoretical access to the world’s resources didn’t spontaneously create 10000 sci-fi books. Similar isolation the other way around. Societies are still so isolated (language, culture, political leanings) despite so much integration.

>theoretical access to the world’s resources

There's the rub. Access to the world's cultural resources is highly limited in China. They've outright firewalled the internet.

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

#188

Post by dTal »

Maursault wrote: post #184
s1artibartfast wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll try to be helpful and not combative. I think it is a matter of semantics because it seemed like you have a different understanding of the meaning of the word emerge then the person you are responding to. Within the context of the original post, the word emerge has nothing to do with the physical location of mitochondria and the eukaryotic cell. Instead, the meaning of emergence was to come into existence from no…

> Similarly, I would argue that a "mitochondria" not living in a parent so is not a mitochondria at all. I'm not sure why you're continuing to try to make it clear to me that you're not wrong when we simply disagree, but your statement here employs nominal fallacy, or naming fallacy. Mitochondria is that same bacteria that it used to be prior to entering into a symbiotic relationship within the cell. It's a relativel…

1) A thing can have a different name depending on where it is - for example, "power converter mounting bolt" and "control panel cover fastening bolt" might both be M8 bolts, and interchangeable. This isn't any sort of fallacy.

2) In any case, mitochondria have evolved, and are now distinct species from their ancestors that cannot survive outside the cell.

3) Fittingly, a spade is pointed, while a shovel is square tipped.

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

#189

Post by MaxikCZ »

wrvn wrote: post #114
alex_duf wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

surely such a system would be extremely unstable right?

There actually is a sextuple star system in the night sky. Castor looks like a single star but actually consists of three binary stars: two of them in a binary system that is itself in a binary system with the other binary star. I don't know if there could be a stable position for a planet that would never experience nights, but there is at least some reason behind the idea.

For stable, always day position, maybe the planet could be in L1 point between two suns?

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

#190

Post by kbelder »

fnord77 wrote: post #125
once_inc wrote: post #86

For those replying to this article with "imagine living there", please note that if life is a verdant, resilient and common as many of us hope it is, the universe might contain quite a number of insane places to live: - Near the center of a galaxy, where stars are so closely packed together that the night sky is filled with bright lights, perhaps illuminating their world to what we experience around twilight, or even…

reasonable inputs into Drake's yield 1. So this is just fanciful

Reasonable inputs into Drake's also yield millions, so that's not helpful.
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