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The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

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Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#21

It not the complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_black_hole... On a related note, I never understood how a black hole (or frozen stars like the Russians call them) could potentially orbit or be swallowed by another black hole. If they "infinitely" deform space-time, shouldn't they be unable to move at all? If time stands still past the event horizon as they say and they also rip the space-t…

i believe stephen hawking stated that matter does/or could escape black holes, but this subject matter is beyond my expertise so i suggest you ask him.

with that being said, it would seem to me that yes, black holes can move, our milky way is not stationary, and black holes have been known to have very fast rotation speeds.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#22

Here is the one thing that really keeps me awake at night: what if our science was the equivalent of a bunch of ants in a typical ant hill in anyone of our backyards, defining a mechanism or "method" through which they have explained for themselves the nature of the solar system? That's the one thing. And I can't shake it off.

dont let leorocky get you down.

if the universe keeps expanding, eventually it will expand at the speed of light and everything that is not gravitationally locked with us (wich only includes the milky way and about 5 or so other galaixies) will be moving faster than the speed of light and will be impossible to observe in any way.

in a sense, it means leo is actually wrong. if an intelligent race comes into being after said event, it could be true that no amount of science will ever be able to show that the rest of the universe existed. that also means some other phenomenon may have occurred that will make us as just as useless at understanding what happened as ants are at knowing/exploring the stars.

that is, if certain theories about the expansion of the galaxy is true.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think ants are so stupid? They farm, own slaves and have organized raids. Of course, the ones in your backyard typically don't do that. Those are like boring human villages.

I think they are very smart. They just don't really understand the solar system. And i think it is difficult for them to do.

"They just don't really understand the solar system. And i think it is difficult for them to do."

You could say that about many humans too right now, and certainly all humans up until the last however many years.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#24

It not the complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_black_hole... On a related note, I never understood how a black hole (or frozen stars like the Russians call them) could potentially orbit or be swallowed by another black hole. If they "infinitely" deform space-time, shouldn't they be unable to move at all? If time stands still past the event horizon as they say and they also rip the space-t…

I wondered the same thing! This article seems to do a fine job on talking about black hole collisions: http://www.universetoday.com/13002/what-happens-when-superma...

TL;DR: blackhole mergers are really rare, because one often kicks the other out.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#25

It not the complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_black_hole... On a related note, I never understood how a black hole (or frozen stars like the Russians call them) could potentially orbit or be swallowed by another black hole. If they "infinitely" deform space-time, shouldn't they be unable to move at all? If time stands still past the event horizon as they say and they also rip the space-t…

I believe black holes can be treated as normal astronomical objects outside their event horizon. The weird singularity behavior only applies within the event horizons.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#26
post #22

Here is the one thing that really keeps me awake at night: what if our science was the equivalent of a bunch of ants in a typical ant hill in anyone of our backyards, defining a mechanism or "method" through which they have explained for themselves the nature of the solar system? That's the one thing. And I can't shake it off.

dont let leorocky get you down. if the universe keeps expanding, eventually it will expand at the speed of light and everything that is not gravitationally locked with us (wich only includes the milky way and about 5 or so other galaixies) will be moving faster than the speed of light and will be impossible to observe in any way. in a sense, it means leo is actually wrong. if an intelligent race comes into being afte…

thank you autokad.

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#27
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think ants are so stupid? They farm, own slaves and have organized raids. Of course, the ones in your backyard typically don't do that. Those are like boring human villages.

I think they are very smart. They just don't really understand the solar system. And i think it is difficult for them to do.

How can you tell? If ants were able to understand the solar system, would you expect them to behave differently?

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think ants are so stupid? They farm, own slaves and have organized raids. Of course, the ones in your backyard typically don't do that. Those are like boring human villages.

I think they are very smart. They just don't really understand the solar system. And i think it is difficult for them to do.

An ant as an individual is smart enough to recognize food and bring it back, do basic social behaviors. However, the real intelligence of ants is emergent from the entire colony.

http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/Collective-Inte...

Re: The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

#29
The animation blew my mind. Especially S0-16. What the heck was that thing's velocity at perihelion? A whole star moving that much, that fast, accelerating like that in only 16 years. An entire star, tossed about in space like a ragdoll.
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