Supermassive black hole discovered.....

[cheerfulgreek]

This was on the news last night, and I thought it was really interesting. It's freaking huge!
Meet the black hole of your nightmares

At just 4 solar masses, the black hole at the center of our own galaxy is like really small compared to most. But this one? Holy crap!

eta: there's also a really awesome animation of what it's doing to the stars around it.

[PM_Mama00]

<cue baseball seen in Twilight>

[victoriana]

All I could think of when I saw this thread was the song by Muse. Also, that's awesome. I love astronomy.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by victoriana

Also, that's awesome. I love astronomy.

Ditto!

[BadCat25]

Check out The Great Courses - Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy CDs.

[cheerfulgreek]

^^^With a telescope (a powerful one, too), books, DVDs, magazine subscriptions, and my membership in my astronomy club, would make me an astonomy hoarder if I added those course DVDs...

[Phrozen Sands]

Interesting article. I chuckled at "It's almost all black hole". I used to be interested in astronomy when I was a kid, but I kind of outgrew it. As an adult, I still occasionally will watch a documentary when it's on tv. I saw a movie about a black hole when I was a kid, and have always wondered what it would be like if we were to fall in. Or how fast the force of gravity would change the closer we got to it.

[cheerfulgreek]

^^^I've never fallen in so, I wouldn't know...

But, I could make a guess. If I can remember from when I had physics in undergrad, the equations of gravity show that gravity changes more and more quickly as you near the center of an object.

There's also a difference between falling into a small black hole vs. falling into a really big one, like the one at the center of our galaxy, or the one in the article. Smaller black holes allow you to get much closer to their centers before you enter their event horizons, so the change of gravity over small distances would more likely than not be devastating, if you were to fall in.

With bigger black holes, their total gravity is monstrous, but the difference in gravity from your head to your toes near their event horizon is relatively small, when compared to smaller black holes. Long story short, anyone who fell in would get ripped apart, it would just be more painful falling into a smaller black hole.

Which movie was it? I'd like to see it, if I haven't already.