The Largest Black Hole in the Known Universe

Post by jliptzin » Mon, Jun 16, 2014, 1:20 AM UTC

z3phyr wrote: post #45

antognini wrote: post #38

It's interesting that this has made it to HN! My research is on the dynamics of few body systems so I know OJ 287 well! One of the projects I've been wanting to work on but haven't gotten around to is about this system. As the article mentions, OJ 287 is strange because it is a blazar (which is very rare, since the outflow has to be pointed directly at us) and is in a binary (which is also rare), yet it also happens…

Its good to see more Astrophysicists using HN. I am very much interested in studying the workings of the cosmos, but I am not a professional degree holder in space science. I do freelance software development, but want to catch up with astrophysics too. Is it possible?

Post by alixaxel » Mon, Jun 16, 2014, 3:22 PM UTC

carljoseph wrote: post #44

wyager wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is pretty much true. You could replace our sun with a black hole of the same mass, and nothing would change in terms of planet's orbits. The image of a black hole "sucking" things in like a vacuum cleaner is hugely incorrect. I think this perception comes about from the funnel image we often see representing black holes.