WTF News #2 : Big Stars = Black Holes?

[DrumStix]

Wow. Well, if people don't wanna click the link below, here's the full article :


From Space.com :
(Dec. 8) -- The biggest black holes in the universe are also the most perplexing. Scientists have long been confused about just how the earliest, most massive black holes formed, but new evidence now suggests they could have originated inside giant cocoon-like stars.
This idea is at odds with the prevailing thinking that large black holes are created by the clumping together of smaller black holes.
Skip over this content (http://www.rockband.com/forums/#axs211)
http://o.aolcdn.com/photo-hub/news_gallery/6/4/640690/1260307618344.JPEG NASA / AP
This is the galaxy NGC-1097, which has a massive black hole surrounded by a ring of stars at its center. A University of Colorado scientists says the universe's biggest black holes may have been created by massive stars that formed soon after the Big Bang.



Not so, says University of Colorado at Boulder astrophysicist Mitchell Begelman. Rather, these behemoth black holes likely formed in the middle of even larger supermassive stars that could have held tens of millions of times the mass of our sun, according to Begelman.
"Until recently, the thinking by many has been that supermassive black holes got their start from the merging of numerous, small black holes in the universe," Begelman said. "This new model of black hole development indicates a possible alternate route to their formation."
Begelman studied how these gigantic stars could have formed, and how massive their cores might have been, to understand how they might have given rise to huge black holes. The results of his investigation will be published in an upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.
The monster stars probably started forming within the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, which is thought to have created the universe around 14 billion years ago, Begelman found. When the cores of these giant stars had burned all their hydrogen, they would have collapsed, forming dense black holes. Meanwhile the outside gas layers of the stars remained as a shroud. Eventually, though, the black holes would have swallowed all the remaining stellar matter within their reach, ballooning rapidly to staggering weights, the study suggests.
This scenario could be more likely than the clumping process as the origin of supermassive black holes, Begelman said, though it's also possible that both methods have occurred.
"The problem that most people see in the clumping mechanism is whether you get these small black holes to merge frequently enough," Begelman told SPACE.com. "I'm working on trying to compare the rates of these two processes."
Over time, the resulting black boles might have merged with other giant black holes to form even larger leviathans.

Or, here's the full article link if you want pictures . . .

http://news.aol.com/article/do-stars-spawn-giant-black-holes/807764?icid=main|hp-desktop|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farti cle%2Fdo-stars-spawn-giant-black-holes%2F807764

Ok, this is quite interesting.

If this is true, Earth may possibly be in danger!

So . . .

WTF? :confused::confused:

[SonicRocker15X]

We'll be gone before any black hole near us is likely to totally annihilate us.

The Earth is going to be destroyed entirely in some way... But hopefully by then humankind has either died off from a less painful issue or migrated to other areas of space by then, since they're mostly theories millions of years off.

[Joey-Z]

Isn't this common knowledge?



If this is true, Earth may possibly be in danger!


I guess if you're shocked at this, you'd hate to know that there's a supermassive black hole at the center of most galaxies. (Including ours and Andromeda)

[SonicRocker15X]

I guess if you're shocked at this, you'd hate to know that there's a supermassive black hole at the center of most galaxies. (Including ours and Andromeda)

Why would there be a Muse song at our galaxy's center? I know they're good, but are they really THAT GOOD?

[Joey-Z]

Why would there be a Muse song at our galaxy's center? I know they're good, but are they really THAT GOOD?

You mean you didn't know?
The universe revolves around Muse, duh! :p

[jonoo24]

Isn't this common knowledge?

I also thought this.

[Hungryfreak]

I fail to see how this is 'WTF' news, especially considering how it's more of an extension on current theories.

[Blackjack041277]

Why would anyone think this is a threat to the Earth?

[Sarge51]

Why would there be a Muse song at our galaxy's center? I know they're good, but are they really THAT GOOD?

That joke would be funny if I actually liked The Muse.


I was hoping this thread was about giant stars being so gigantic that their gravitational pull mimics that of a black hole. But this is even more interesting.

[SonicRocker15X]

That joke would be funny if I actually liked The Muse.


I was hoping this thread was about giant back holes being so gigantic that their gravitational pull mimics that of a black hole. But this is even more interesting.

Um... Yes, a black hole has a gravitational pull of that of a black hole.

[Sarge51]

I just edited mah post. >.<

[pacifistWITHgun]

The cool thing about black holes is that they're completely harmless unless you get too close. And no, we're nowhere even vaguely near being too close.

[NoMoreVillains]

The cool thing about black holes is that they're completely harmless unless you get too close. And no, we're nowhere even vaguely near being too close.

Heck, the sun could become a black hole and the Earth would still orbit around it like always. Granted, it will get a little chilly.

[hawkofva]

Our sun isn't one that would cycle into a black hole. Our sun will likely just grow into a red giant (destroying Earth in the process), then eventually lose it's outer layers and become a white dwarf. (Billions of years from now, don't worry.) It's not even big enough to explode. :(

[DrumStix]

Our sun isn't one that would cycle into a black hole. Our sun will likely just grow into a red giant (destroying Earth in the process), then eventually lose it's outer layers and become a white dwarf. (Billions of years from now, don't worry.) It's not even big enough to explode. :(

I hope you're right Hawk. :/

[hawkofva]

I hope you're right Hawk. :/
Look outside (tomorrow, I guess, it's night now in the US), see the sun? Don't look directly at it, that's bad for you! Now, see how it's yellow? That means we're good. Our sun is 5 billion years old. That's only half of its life span; it'll be another 5 billion years before it reaches the White Dwarf phase. It'll be really slow too, so if humanity is still around, they'll have millions of years to prepare. :p

Sol (our star) is relatively boring in the grand scheme of things. :D

[jonoo24]

I hope you're right Hawk. :/

He is. Fun Fact: When our sun becomes a red giant, Earth and the two in front of it (maybe mars) will get swallowed. As in, there will be a sun where you are standing in a couple billion years.

[hawkofva]

He is. Fun Fact: When our sun becomes a red giant, Earth and the two in front of it (maybe mars) will get swallowed. As in, there will be a sun where you are standing in a couple billion years.
That's sort of true. The sun will get much bigger, but it's mass (and by extension gavitic attraction to the planets) will also decrease as it does. Earth will probably simply move into an orbit further out, but the shifting gravitational forces will also probably destroy the planet as that happens. What's left of it should still be orbiting the sun afterwards though. :)

[jonoo24]

Also, were extremely tiny, if you needed more "WTF(but is really supposed to be common knowledge) news. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related)


ehh, i just saw a rudimentary video, all it did was show how dig the sun will get. IF the earth doesn't move.

[hawkofva]

Also, were extremely tiny, if you needed more "WTF(but is really supposed to be common knowledge) news. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related)


ehh, i just saw a rudimentary video, all it did was show how dig the sun will get. IF the earth doesn't move.
You were very right about where we're standing being sun during that, in a point-in-space point of view, the planet simply won't be here anymore. :D

Astrophysics is fun, isn't it? :)

[jonoo24]

'tis. I'm a freshmen in high school, and im thinking about either majoring in music or some kind of engineering. I think astrophysics would be a fun, yet challenging major.

[hawkofva]

It's an awesome subject. I took a freshman Liberal Studies (read: Gen-Ed) course on the History of Science with an Astrophysics teacher here, and that class was a blast. It's not just the subject matter either, Astrophysics professors are generally awesome people. :D

[DrumStix]

Also, were extremely tiny, if you needed more "WTF(but is really supposed to be common knowledge) news. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related)


ehh, i just saw a rudimentary video, all it did was show how dig the sun will get. IF the earth doesn't move.


Only one thing to say . . .



WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?


I mean that in a VERY BIG way.

[jonoo24]

Yeah, well the education system in LA is super sub-par(I think were 49th in grad rates) So i don't really get to take those kinds of classes.

Please tell me you haven't been through 8th grade, or you live in southern louisiana.

[hawkofva]

Yeah, well the education system in LA is super sub-par(I think were 49th in grad rates) So i don't really get to take those kinds of classes.
University Freshmen, mate. You don't get to take awesome classes like that until you start paying for your education. :p

You'll get to look forward to that sort of thing later. :D

[Cpt. Overkill]

Sounds... supermassive...

:cool:

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH.

[jonoo24]

University Freshmen, mate. You don't get to take awesome classes like that until you start paying for your education. :p

You'll get to look forward to that sort of thing later. :D

I was hell bent on going to LSU, but now seeing the inportance, im not so sure about it. It's either LSU, Southeastern, LA Tech(my brother went there), or Tulane(IF i get a scholarship. Very unlikely)

[woofmix]

Sounds... supermassive.

:cool:
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH.

You've done well my apprentice...

Though I had to fix something for you.

[Sarge51]

I love those size comparison movies. Until I saw one of those I had no idea how big Neptune was compared to the Earth. :3

Our Sun is pretty lame compared to other stars. I don't know how you guys got on the subject of black holes becoming a threat to Earth... I think we should worry about those stars that actually move through space at high velocities. Imagine Earth getting hit by a REAL shooting star, or a gamma ray burst, or all the atoms in the Universe being completely ripped apart by "The Big Rip", now that'd be fun.

[bood-boy]

where we're going you wont need eyes to see......

[Wolfbeckett]

where we're going you wont need eyes to see......

Where we're going, you don't need... roads.

Astrophysics is awesome. It's kind of mind blowing to think that no matter we humans do, sooner or later the earth will be destroyed, one way or another.

[bood-boy]

thats why we have to build the USS Enterprise with a massive tractor beam.

[Wolfbeckett]

Also, were extremely tiny, if you needed more "WTF(but is really supposed to be common knowledge) news. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&feature=related)


ehh, i just saw a rudimentary video, all it did was show how dig the sun will get. IF the earth doesn't move.

Dang man, dang, that **** be crazy. 1100 years for an airplane to travel around the biggest star we know of one time? Daaaaaaaaaaaang.

[kiggidykev]

I've seen Star Trek. We'd just end up in the future and meet Spock

[bood-boy]

i still wish someone got my eyes comment. too bad.

[hawkofva]

I was hell bent on going to LSU, but now seeing the inportance, im not so sure about it. It's either LSU, Southeastern, LA Tech(my brother went there), or Tulane(IF i get a scholarship. Very unlikely)

I almost went to Tulane, but even with a scholarship, that's a damn expensive school. :(

[Sarge51]

thats why we have to build the USS Enterprise with a massive tractor beam.

As cool as it would be to actually pull Earth to a safer part of space, I think that's only a temporary solution. I don't think we'll ever be able to move an entire planet at warp-speed. But the idea would be great for when The Sun expands or global warming gets too rough.

-Futurama!-

Pull the Earth farther away from The Sun, thus increasing orbit time, thus giving us an extra week in the year. I declare this week, "ROBOT PARTY WEEK!"

[bood-boy]

hahahaha im fully aware of this sarge. and it wouldnt be a temporary solution cause pulling us away from our current orbit would have devastting effects on the planet. much like when megatron brought cybertron into earths orbit in the ultimate doom trilogy and it totally fd up our planet. thankfully megatron loaded up their spaceship with too many energon cubes and we were able to blow it up and the explosion pushed cybertron out of our orbit saving the planet. thank god.

[pacifistWITHgun]

Astrophysics makes me wish I was actually good at math. I'd love to get into that but I'm not really scientifically inclined so to speak.

[jonoo24]

That's a damn expensive school. :(

Which is a killer because I could easily get in. Just can't pay for it.:(

[pacifistWITHgun]

And now for some real WTF!?! news:


What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky?

If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday.

Curiously, it appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html#ixzz0ZFcS02LF


I really want to know just exactly what the hell that is...

[DrumStix]

And now for some real WTF!?! news:




I really want to know just exactly what the hell that is...

Alien sperm?

[Sarge51]

I really don't believe the explanation. That doesn't look like a rocket spinning out of control at all. I'm more convinced it was a mad scientist trying to hypnotize the Norway citizens. But, whatever.

[monkeyfish]

I really don't believe the explanation. That doesn't look like a rocket spinning out of control at all. I'm more convinced it was a mad scientist trying to hypnotize the Norway citizens. But, whatever.

It's feasible, depending on the chemistry held within the rocket and the atmospheric conditions. The atomic bombs are known to make sunrise and sunset really really pretty...you know, to those who aren't dust and a flash-burned shadow.

[ThunderCurls]

No reason to panic people, I've figured it all out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21esmupJ-wQ

[hawkofva]

It was a failed test launch of a new Russian ICBM. They admitted it this morning. The third stage ignition failed, which sent it into the spiral.

[Joey-Z]

No reason to panic people, I've figured it all out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21esmupJ-wQ

:D Too funny, dude.

[ThunderCurls]

It was a failed test launch of a new Russian ICBM. They admitted it this morning. The third stage ignition failed, which sent it into the spiral.

No it was Batman.