The Biggest Black Holes Yet!

[3113]

No snide remarks. From here:

Astrophysicists scanning the heavens have clocked a new cosmological record: the two biggest black holes ever detected — one about 10 billion times the mass of our sun and the second as much as twice the size of the first.

To be described in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, these behemoth black holes are nearly double the size of the previous record-holder and — strangely — are far more massive than they should be given the size of the galaxies they reside within.

And here's a diagram showing how big our solar system is compared to one of these black holes. Cool, huh?

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-12/66538787.jpg

 

[Handley_Page]

'Strewth mate. I'm glad they ain't round here.

 

[estragon]

Puts me in mind of T.S. Eliot: This is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a suckkkkkk.

 

[stephen55]

The Schwarzschild radius of a non-rotating, spherical black hole is...



r = 2Gm/c^2

r = radius
G is the gravitational constant (6.673 x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 sec^-2)
c = speed of light in a vacuum (3 x 10 ^8 m/sec)


10 billion times the mass of the sun is about two times ten to the 40th kilograms

...so, call the radius of this black hole about thirty billion kilometers


Uranus is about three billion kilometers out there, so the radius of this black hole is about ten times that distance, which means the diagram above is about right.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The biggest black holes around here are on the south side of town.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I honestly resisted clicking on this thread because I was afraid of what it might contain!

 

[3113]

I honestly resisted clicking on this thread because I was afraid of what it might contain!

Worried you might get sucked in, huh?

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Worried you might get sucked in, huh?

Ooooo that was a good one!

 

[Safe_Bet]

They also discover an elusive Sicilian Hole. Not nearly as big, but WAY sexier.

They didnt get any pictures though... She started throwing dark matter and screaming "lasciarmi il cazzo solo, stronzi!".

 

[Handley_Page]

The Schwarzschild radius of a non-rotating, spherical black hole is...


r = 2Gm/c^2

r = radius
G is the gravitational constant (6.673 x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 sec^-2)
c = speed of light in a vacuum (3 x 10 ^8 m/sec)


10 billion times the mass of the sun is about two times ten to the 40th kilograms

...so, call the radius of this black hole about thirty billion kilometers


Uranus is about three billion kilometers out there, so the radius of this black hole is about ten times that distance, which means the diagram above is about right.

I'd appreciate an explanation of the Gravitational constant, even in a PM, please.

 

[jomar]

Wow. So our whole solar system is a hologram.

 

[3113]

Wow. So our whole solar system is a hologram.

You didn't know? 3-D glasses help.

 

[jomar]

You didn't know? 3-D glasses help.

I am irked at having to spend the extra money to see the big bang properly!

 

[LordMhoram]

I'd appreciate an explanation of the Gravitational constant, even in a PM, please.

The gravitational constant is the proportionality constant used in Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, and is commonly denoted by G. This is different from g, which denotes the acceleration due to gravity. In most texts, we see it expressed as:

G = 6.673×10-11 N m2 kg-2

It is typically used in the equation:

F = (G x m1 x m2) / r2 , wherein

F = force of gravity

G = gravitational constant

m1 = mass of the first object (lets assume it’s of the massive one)

m2 = mass of the second object (lets assume it’s of the smaller one)

r = the separation between the two masses


As with all constants in Physics, the gravitational constant is an empirical value. That is to say, it is proven through a series of experiments and subsequent observations.

(Villanueva, 2009)

There's the short version.

References
Villanueva, J. C. 2009, Universe Today website, http://www.universetoday.com/34838/gravitational-constant/ retrieved Dec 10, 2011