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Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

phys.org

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Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#41
post #13
post #4

If the plasma jet is wildly larger than our entire galaxy, I wonder if some sort of exotic life could evolve inside the jet. Some sort of life that would be totally rare in the universe.

Sometimes I wonder if our whole universe is some kind of transient aberration, if you zoom out far enough

We are little critters living in space squirts

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the amount of energy required to create a jet that large! The scales are so big, it makes me wonder if there isn’t an upper limit to energy density. How much energy can be in one spot before you inadvertently create a Big Bang?

> it makes me wonder if there isn’t an upper limit to energy density Yes, in a sense. The point at which the energy bends space-time into a black hole.

Actually, in theory there is one place denser but our models show it can never happen.

The moment right after the big bang. As energy can never be created nor destroyed, all the energy in the universe was practically in one point in space-time a femtosecond after the big bang.

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#43

I thought that only hawking radiation could escape a black hole. Now a paper describing a vast jet of emitted plasma?? The article doesn't quite clarify this point. It mentions the jets shooting from below and above the black holes, but does this mean they're emerging from their interior or being created by the accretion of superheated material that forms in orbit around black holes? The article simple states this, w…

Truly, what kind of pedants would downvote an honest question about this poorly described detail?

I've seen people say "you're not supposed to mention" downvotes if they happen to you, but when they're plainly stupid?

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#44
post #10

The jets are 23 million light years in length! That's 140 milky way galaxies laid out -- these are sizes I can't even begin to comprehend

Imagine a one meter long jet. Congratulations, you've begun to comprehend it and now are at 1/(2.176 × 1023) of the total length.

10^23 is actually easy to comprehend, because it’s close to the amount of h2o molecules in a syringe. Just that many meters.

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it makes me wonder if there isn’t an upper limit to energy density Yes, in a sense. The point at which the energy bends space-time into a black hole.

Actually, in theory there is one place denser but our models show it can never happen. The moment right after the big bang. As energy can never be created nor destroyed, all the energy in the universe was practically in one point in space-time a femtosecond after the big bang.

The whole concept of the Big Bang is a mind warp. The whole explosion must have happened in some… space-time thing to begin with. What was that immense point of matter and energy in? What was “around” it? We’ll never know.

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#46
post #20
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not my field, but could the Big Bang have been a massive black hole that "spat" out jets of plasma that formed into new stars and galaxies? I call this the black hole big burp theory.

This is very close to an idea known as "Black hole cosmology" -- basically the idea being that the visible universe is inside a black hole, leading to a sort of "nested multiverse". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-hole_cosmology A related theory, rather than being inside a black hole, is that the other side of a black hole is a "white hole". As matter collapses into a black hole, it is emitted from the white hole…

Wait a minute, I missed the discussion

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, in theory there is one place denser but our models show it can never happen. The moment right after the big bang. As energy can never be created nor destroyed, all the energy in the universe was practically in one point in space-time a femtosecond after the big bang.

The whole concept of the Big Bang is a mind warp. The whole explosion must have happened in some… space-time thing to begin with. What was that immense point of matter and energy in? What was “around” it? We’ll never know.

One word, AGI

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#48
post #13
post #4

If the plasma jet is wildly larger than our entire galaxy, I wonder if some sort of exotic life could evolve inside the jet. Some sort of life that would be totally rare in the universe.

Sometimes I wonder if our whole universe is some kind of transient aberration, if you zoom out far enough

For all we know, we live inside some large scale invisible jet and our entire understand of physics is really the exception rather than the rule

Re: Biggest ever seen black hole jets; blasting plasma well beyond their own galaxy

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it makes me wonder if there isn’t an upper limit to energy density Yes, in a sense. The point at which the energy bends space-time into a black hole.

Actually, in theory there is one place denser but our models show it can never happen. The moment right after the big bang. As energy can never be created nor destroyed, all the energy in the universe was practically in one point in space-time a femtosecond after the big bang.

My layman understanding is that we don't have the theories or math to try and understand this so it's just a black box that we pretend to understand
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