Comments on: M81: Feeding a Black Hole

By: reboot

reboot — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:05:27 +0000

Put simply: the star, gases and other objects are swirling around the black hole like water going down the drain. This is called an accretion disk, because scientists don’t like to make toilet analogies in their papers. As all that swirling stuff starts going faster and gets compressed, it gives off x-rays, which we can detect. Just to be clear: the x-rays are given off when the swirling matter is close to, but not inside, the event horizon. So while we can’t actually detect the black hole itself, there’s some stuff that acts like it might be near the black hole.

By: Annarchy

Annarchy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:52:48 +0000

Too many big words in the quote for my little brain to process. But the picture is very nice!

By: MikeBabaguh

MikeBabaguh — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:46:08 +0000

Oh, never mind.

By: GorillaMunch

GorillaMunch — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:07:47 +0000

in the snow? I’d have to walk that, up hill , both ways ! In my father’s boots.

By: Caio

Caio — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:40:15 +0000

2.7? When I was a kid I’d do that every morning in the snow

By: reboot

reboot — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:25:10 +0000

@MikeBabaguh
um, I was being facetious; trying to funny. I guess I should stop.

By: MikeBabaguh

MikeBabaguh — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:59:11 +0000

Reboot, as far as neighboring galaxies go, 12 million light years IS pretty close. Our closest neighbor is 2.7 million light years away.

By: MacheteJak

MacheteJak — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:34:18 +0000

*reads quote*

. . .

What?

By: reboot

reboot — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:56:33 +0000

“only 12 million light-years away”
yeah, that’s barely farther than a trip to the drugstore.

By: Caio

Caio — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:50:38 +0000

worst. galaxy. ever