Astronomers detect Milky Way black hole w mass 33 times that of the Sun
May 11, 2024 10:10 PM Subscribe
Astronomers detect Milky Way black hole with mass 33 times that of the Sun. Astronomers have discovered the second-largest black hole known to be in the Milky Way, and it's located just 2000 light-years from Earth.
That’s it. I’m outta here.
posted by adamrice at 10:51 PM on May 11 [1 favorite]
posted by adamrice at 10:51 PM on May 11 [1 favorite]
oh no. we're all gonna die
posted by philip-random at 10:54 PM on May 11
posted by philip-random at 10:54 PM on May 11
Just 2,000 light years away and 12 billion years old, wow!
Contrast this little guy that's just 33x the sun's mass with the quasar discovered in February that's 17 billion times the sun's mass and eats the equivalent of one sun per day.
I keep seeing people saying our universe is "fine-tuned for life" but what it in fact seems very good at producing is every kind of black hole imaginable.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 12:11 AM on May 12 [12 favorites]
Contrast this little guy that's just 33x the sun's mass with the quasar discovered in February that's 17 billion times the sun's mass and eats the equivalent of one sun per day.
I keep seeing people saying our universe is "fine-tuned for life" but what it in fact seems very good at producing is every kind of black hole imaginable.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 12:11 AM on May 12 [12 favorites]
And here I am, trapped without hope of escape in the gravitational field of a 0.000003 solar mass object. I'd ask for help but am too embarrassed. It doesn't even have an event horizon!
posted by swr at 3:16 AM on May 12 [8 favorites]
posted by swr at 3:16 AM on May 12 [8 favorites]
with a mass of 33 unimaginable masses [for me]
i still have problems imagining that mountain over there or Earth at all.
posted by filtergik at 4:09 AM on May 12 [3 favorites]
i still have problems imagining that mountain over there or Earth at all.
posted by filtergik at 4:09 AM on May 12 [3 favorites]
17 billion times the sun's mass and eats the equivalent of one sun per day
caught that quasar growing and I said, "no way"
that hypocrite eats one sun a day
posted by credulous at 6:00 AM on May 12 [4 favorites]
caught that quasar growing and I said, "no way"
that hypocrite eats one sun a day
posted by credulous at 6:00 AM on May 12 [4 favorites]
So close, and yet so far
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:27 AM on May 12
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:27 AM on May 12
When people say our universe is fine tuned for life, they're talking about how protons don't explode instantly. Having stable atoms is a precondition for life as we know it, sure, but calling it that is kind of burying the lede.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 6:59 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 6:59 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
To help conceptualize how massive a black hole is, imagine a big rock so heavy that you can't move it.
It's a lot heavier than that.
posted by biogeo at 8:08 AM on May 12 [9 favorites]
It's a lot heavier than that.
posted by biogeo at 8:08 AM on May 12 [9 favorites]
Imagine a rock so heavy that it crushes under its own weight every single electron in it into the smallest possible space and momentum it can fit in.
A black whole is a lot heavier than that.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:48 AM on May 12 [3 favorites]
A black whole is a lot heavier than that.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:48 AM on May 12 [3 favorites]
I keep seeing people saying our universe is "fine-tuned for life" but what it in fact seems very good at producing is every kind of black hole imaginable.
I keep a primordial black hole in my pocket to get rid of CVS receipts.
posted by lock robster at 10:30 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
I keep a primordial black hole in my pocket to get rid of CVS receipts.
posted by lock robster at 10:30 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
Contrast this little guy that's just 33x the sun's mass with the quasar discovered in February that's 17 billion times the sun's mass and eats the equivalent of one sun per day.
More precisely, ate the equivalent of one sun per day. That quasar's about 12 billion light years away so by now it's undoubtedly quiescent and will stay that way unless it happens to gobble up another galactic nucleus.
It’s so very lonely, you’re 2,000 light years from home
Not sure what you're referencing but it reminded me of this 30 year old song and for some reason it's raining now although I'm indoors. Weird.
posted by xigxag at 12:40 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
More precisely, ate the equivalent of one sun per day. That quasar's about 12 billion light years away so by now it's undoubtedly quiescent and will stay that way unless it happens to gobble up another galactic nucleus.
It’s so very lonely, you’re 2,000 light years from home
Not sure what you're referencing but it reminded me of this 30 year old song and for some reason it's raining now although I'm indoors. Weird.
posted by xigxag at 12:40 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
how long will it take to reach the black hole traveling at warp 9.
posted by clavdivs at 12:51 PM on May 12
posted by clavdivs at 12:51 PM on May 12
It's that "second largest found in the Milky Way" that fascinates me since this one is so tiny. A suppose it's hard to find black holes in your own cosmic back yard because reasons?
posted by sotonohito at 1:25 PM on May 12
posted by sotonohito at 1:25 PM on May 12
I think it's mainly that the really really big ones are the ones at the center of galaxies. That's the first-largest one we already know about. To get another one that large, we have to look at another galaxy, and those also happen to be the easiest ones to find.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 2:28 PM on May 12
posted by I-Write-Essays at 2:28 PM on May 12
what it in fact seems very good at producing is every kind of black hole imaginable.
Or rather, two of the kinds of black hole imaginable. The intermediate mass ones seem a bit more scarce.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 4:26 PM on May 12
Or rather, two of the kinds of black hole imaginable. The intermediate mass ones seem a bit more scarce.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 4:26 PM on May 12
A suppose it's hard to find black holes in your own cosmic back yard because reasons?
This explanation is going to get a little technical, but it's easy to find stars because they make light, but black holes are black, so it's hard to see them.
posted by aubilenon at 4:50 PM on May 12 [3 favorites]
This explanation is going to get a little technical, but it's easy to find stars because they make light, but black holes are black, so it's hard to see them.
posted by aubilenon at 4:50 PM on May 12 [3 favorites]
When people say our universe is fine tuned for life, they're talking about how protons don't explode instantly.
I think they're talking just as much, at least implicitly, about how important WE are, so much so that the entire universe's function or overall purpose might be characterized in terms of having produced us.
Having stable atoms is a precondition for life as we know it
It's also a precondition for 10 billion quintillion other phenomena. But curiously, I've yet to see any human write "our universe is fine-tuned for Pulsar PSR B1937+21".
If we're talking about "fine-tuning" our universe's fundamental constants, we should be looking at plausible candidates for the universe's overall function or purpose, not random preconditions for arbitrarily-chosen, tiny, ephemeral slivers of it.
I think a less biased framing than "fine-tuned for life" is that if our universe has any overall function or purpose for which its fundamental constants were fine-tuned, then it's to produce black holes.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 7:54 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
I think they're talking just as much, at least implicitly, about how important WE are, so much so that the entire universe's function or overall purpose might be characterized in terms of having produced us.
Having stable atoms is a precondition for life as we know it
It's also a precondition for 10 billion quintillion other phenomena. But curiously, I've yet to see any human write "our universe is fine-tuned for Pulsar PSR B1937+21".
If we're talking about "fine-tuning" our universe's fundamental constants, we should be looking at plausible candidates for the universe's overall function or purpose, not random preconditions for arbitrarily-chosen, tiny, ephemeral slivers of it.
I think a less biased framing than "fine-tuned for life" is that if our universe has any overall function or purpose for which its fundamental constants were fine-tuned, then it's to produce black holes.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 7:54 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
I think a less biased framing than "fine-tuned for life" is that if our universe has any overall function or purpose for which its fundamental constants were fine-tuned, then it's to produce black holes.
Not to mention, it's pretty clear our universe is not at all fine-tuned for life as it's "honeycombed with nothingness" and missing the large-scale structures such as calinatifacts and subatomic particles like pritons that any halfway habitable universe would have in abundance.
posted by xigxag at 9:45 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
Not to mention, it's pretty clear our universe is not at all fine-tuned for life as it's "honeycombed with nothingness" and missing the large-scale structures such as calinatifacts and subatomic particles like pritons that any halfway habitable universe would have in abundance.
posted by xigxag at 9:45 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
It’s so very lonely, you’re 2,000 light years from home
Not sure what you're referencing but it reminded me of this 30 year old song
I was thinking of this 54 year old song.
posted by TedW at 3:01 AM on May 13 [1 favorite]
Not sure what you're referencing but it reminded me of this 30 year old song
I was thinking of this 54 year old song.
posted by TedW at 3:01 AM on May 13 [1 favorite]
This thing was brought to our galaxy when a smaller galaxy infiltrated our galaxy.
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by mule98J at 10:50 AM on May 13 [1 favorite]
This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by mule98J at 10:50 AM on May 13 [1 favorite]
If it were fined tuned for life, there would be a ton more of it.
There is so much weird and rare stuff simply because the universe is SO HUGE that even weird stuff happens a lot.
posted by VTX at 2:19 PM on May 14
There is so much weird and rare stuff simply because the universe is SO HUGE that even weird stuff happens a lot.
posted by VTX at 2:19 PM on May 14
The universe is fine-tuned for weird stuff, by being very large.
posted by aubilenon at 4:51 PM on May 14 [2 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 4:51 PM on May 14 [2 favorites]
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