Monstrous

Aliens, ETs and UFOs => Outer Space => Topic started by: oldbill4823 on December 10, 2008, 04:20:01 AM

Title: The Black Pearl
Post by: oldbill4823 on December 10, 2008, 04:20:01 AM
From BBC website 10/12/08

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

The black hole is four million times heavier than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.

  The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist

Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Obsevatory (Eso).





Title: Re: The Black Pearl
Post by: Raziel on December 10, 2008, 06:19:32 AM
How is this new exactly? No offence bill but i've been reading this stuff b4 i even knew what keratin was. *<:)
Don't they teach this in grade school? (ok my school didn't. but then my country's educational system is kinda crappy. THANK GOD FOR OFW AUNTS AND UNCLES! Free reading material!)

Anyway. I only stopped by here because the name reminded me of pirates of the carribean. I admit. Capt'n jack sparrow has nothing to do with the massive space time hole at the center of our galaxy........ but you have to admit. he is funnier.
Title: Re: The Black Pearl
Post by: oldbill4823 on December 10, 2008, 09:04:43 AM
You know what Raz I've so got you sussed.

All I have to do to get you to read something is give it a 'piratey' feel.

Aha matey Yer a  festerin lump o green barnacles if I ever did see un.


Ps what is keratin?
Title: Re: The Black Pearl
Post by: Raziel on December 16, 2008, 02:58:45 AM
keratin /ker·a·tin/ (kerŽah-tin) any of a family of scleroproteins that are the main constituents of epidermis, hair, nails, and horny tissues. The high-sulfur keratin polypeptides of ectodermally derived structures, e.g., hair and nails, are also called hard k's.