Giant black hole is seen gobbling up a star

[hue]

Source: Los Angeles Times

A star in another galaxy was ripped apart by the black hole's intense gravity 2 billion years ago and recently witnessed by scientists. 'It turned into this really thin piece of spaghetti,' one said.
Back when single-celled organisms ruled Earth, a gigantic black hole lurking quietly at the center of a distant galaxy dismantled and devoured a star.

On Wednesday, astronomers reported that they watched the whole thing unfold over a period of 15 months starting in 2010, the first time such an event had been witnessed in great detail from start to finish.

"The star got so close that it was ripped apart by the gravitational force of the black hole," said Johns Hopkins University astronomer Suvi Gezari, lead author of a paper about the observations that was published online by the journal Nature.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-black-hole-20120503,0,6876637.story

[lunatica]

1. Wow! I guess they really do exist!

Astronomy is gaining information by leaps and bounds nowadays.

It's fascinating.

[unkachuck]

2. +1....we live in a strange universe or multi-verse....n/t

[snooper2]

15. Yeah, we have known that they "Really Do" for some time LOL

Now why Billions of people continue to believe in mythical sky gods confuses the shit out of me...


Can anybody answer this? Can "God" survive a black hole LOL

[lunatica]

23. We have?

Did we actually find one and see it in action like this? That's the knowns I believe in. Not the Rummy type unknown knowns.

[hue]

24. Here's a vid at the bottom of this article for You:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/black-hole-eats-star-video_n_937150.html

[lunatica]

27. This video was from today

The poster above claimed we've known for quite some time. I notice I didn't get a response so maybe we haven't actually known beyond some theory.

Thanks for the video.

[snooper2]

28. here

It is now widely accepted that the center of (nearly) every galaxy (not just active ones) contains a supermassive black hole.[104] The close observational correlation between the mass of this hole and the velocity dispersion of the host galaxy's bulge, known as the M-sigma relation, strongly suggests a connection between the formation of the black hole and the galaxy itself. [105]


Simulation of gas cloud after close approach to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.[106]Currently, the best evidence for a supermassive black hole comes from studying the proper motion of stars near the center of our own Milky Way.[107] Since 1995 astronomers have tracked the motion of 90 stars in a region called Sagittarius A*. By fitting their motion to Keplerian orbits they were able to infer in 1998 that 2.6 million solar masses must be contained in a volume with a radius of 0.02 lightyears.[108] Since then one of the stars—called S2—has completed a full orbit. From the orbital data they were able to place better constraints on the mass and size of the object causing the orbital motion of stars in the Sagittarius A* region, finding that there is a spherical mass of 4.3 million solar masses contained within a radius of less than 0.002 lightyears.[107] While this is more than 3000 times the Schwarzschild radius corresponding to that mass, it is at least consistent with the central object being a supermassive black hole, and no "realistic cluster [of stars] is physically tenable."[108]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole


Also if you watch "Through the Worm Hole" there's a whole episode on black holes. They spend time with a lady who does nothing but look for black holes for decades. She (as above) can tell where they are by the movements and orbits of stars. Not to say the pictures of one destroying a star aren't greatness. But it's not like this is the final "proof" they are really out there.


And you didn't answer my question. Can Jesus go hang around an event horizon and play horseshoes or not?

[lunatica]

29. Since I'm not God I can't answer your question, and neither can you

Thanks for the link and the information though.

[snooper2]

30. Peter Pan pulled it off twice,

With just a couple scratches and only a little bit of misaligned DNA..

You don't think Jesus or Allah could pull it off?

[lunatica]

31. You're not clever

and actually if you're trying to make some point about believing in God or being an Atheist you're doing both a disservice. Your questions are stupid and meaningless. Are you even trying to make some kind of point? Or are you claiming in your all knowing of all answers way that the story of Peter Pan is the same as the Bible?

I do know one thing. You don't fucking know any more than anyone else does, what the Truth is.

[snooper2]

32. If you do or don't believe in god shouldn't you ask these questions?

Did god create all the galaxies? How fast can god travel? Is god everwhere at once? How is that possible at an atomic level?

If you aren't asking these questions that's where people just go to blind faith. Blind faith in a couple thousand year old books written by men who thought earthquakes were the vengence of some superior being.

[annabanana]

3. I really really really want to see

[font color="green"]"time lapse" picture of this.. I just want to see how it worked.[/font]

[Ian David]

12. Here it is...

[AlbertCat]

18. What a bunch of Christianified swill!

Nice imagery though if you were doing Dante's Inferno.

[Ian David]

19. It's also kind of homoerotic. n/t

[rug]

4. We need Einstein in LBN to unravel this paradox.

"A star in another galaxy was ripped apart by the black hole's intense gravity 2 billion years ago and recently witnessed by scientists."

[harmonicon]

11. No paradox - just simple logic. Think about it for a minute. nt.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Fascinating.

This computer-simulated image shows gas from a shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speed. Astronomers observed a flare in ultraviolet and optical light from the gas falling into the black hole and glowing helium from the star's helium-rich gas expelled from the system. (Suvi Gezari, Johns Hopkins University / May 2, 2012)

Thanks for the thread, hue.

[longship]

6. I love the smell of spaghettification in the morning

[SpankMe]

7. I devour donuts much the same way. n/t

[LASlibinSC]

8. MAN

would love to see this! Did they capture this?I don't know anything about astronomy, but I bet that was sooo cool to watch

[Kablooie]

9. So the Flying Spaghetti Monster IS real! Hooray!

[Speck Tater]

10. Now imagine that...

...there was a civilization on a planet orbiting that star. Imagine how they felt as they realized their entire planet was doomed.

Now imagine how earthlings feel about dooming their own planet with toxic waste, radiation, and global warming. Oh, that's right. Nobody on this planet gives a damn!

[csziggy]

13. 2 billion years ago - this isn't "Late Breaking News"!

[Cal Carpenter]

14. Well played n/t

[AlbertCat]

17. 2 billion years ago - this isn't "Late Breaking News"!

It is for a 13.9 billion year old universe.

[Roland99]

22. Zing!

[itsrobert]

16. There is a joke in there somewhere

But it would be in poor taste and not political correct.

[LanternWaste]

20. My sense of awe and wonder are set to overdrive...

My sense of awe and wonder are set to overdrive when I start thinking about how incredibly vast space and time really are, and the absurdly huge amount of force surrounding and controlling them, the unlimited boundaries we often often merely pretend to have even the tiniest bit of knowledge of.

I enjoy being small and insignificant-- less pressure at parties that way.

[Roland99]

21. *Buurrrrppp*

[Archae]

25. And I thought my teenage nephews and nieces had an appetie!

[derby378]

26. AWESOME! (n/t)