Two Black Holes Predicted to Collide Sooner Than Previously Thought

[jberryhill]

http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2015/09/two-black-holes-predicted-collide-sooner-previously-thought

Earlier this year, astronomers discovered what appeared to be a pair of supermassive black holes circling toward a collision so powerful it would send a burst of gravitational waves surging through the fabric of space-time itself.

---

Well, I'm glad we won't have to wait as long.

[Brother Buzz]

1. They're going to collide in 100,000 year, but it happened 3.5 billion years ago

Do I have that right?

[jberryhill]

2. Oh, I thought it might be one of the upcoming GOP primary debates

[redwitch]

14. LOL!

My first thought 'zactly!

[Deuce]

5. I read it as they are 3.5 billion light-years away from us and will collide in 100,000 yrs.

[Glassunion]

7. If they are 3.5b light years away, then they have already collided.

A few billion years ago.

[Deuce]

13. From article...

Based on calculations of the pair's mass--together, and relative to each other--the researchers go on to predict a smashup 100,000 years from now, an impossibly long time to humans but the blink of an eye to a star or black hole. Spiraling together 3.5 billion light-years away, deep in the Virgo constellation, the pair is separated by a mere light-week. By contrast, the closest previously confirmed black hole pair is separated by 20 light-years.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

17. Man -- I was going to do my hair that day.

[Glassunion]

22. We can reschedule. The new stylist starts earlier that week.

There are still open appointments.

[Glassunion]

21. That's right.

We are observing what happened 3.5 billion years ago. So, right now the two have in actuality joined, bought a rancher in the burbs, put the kids through college, and are happily enjoying their retirement.

[Glassunion]

6. Sounds about right to me.

Basically it already happened 3,499,900,000 years ago... Give or take.

[randys1]

26. You talking about A Bush family member and the truth?

you know, colliding in 100,000 years

as in

well, you know

[hifiguy]

3. I love this geeky astronomy/cosmology stuff.

But I do wonder what is going to happen. Will they merge into an ultramassive black hole? That's an incomprehensible amount of mass colliding.

It seems far enough away that our solar system will be safe.

[saturnsring]

4. i imagine that eventaully black holes will gobble up everything then gobble each other up till

there is only 1 black hole so massive that it will gobble up space itself and the explode into a new big bang

[Taitertots]

8. Black holes release hawking radiation and shrink over time

[saturnsring]

25. thanks for reminding me about that - i had forgotten

[6chars]

27. has that been proven empirically?

seems like it would be hard. i know it is a prediction. (although shrink over time is an understatement of that prediction - it is a very, very long time we are talking about, right?)

[unblock]

9. fascinating. i find black holes completely absorbing.

[Qutzupalotl]

10. DUzy!

[pangaia]

11. Uh,, I got that. absorbing... black holes...

Last edited Thu Sep 17, 2015, 07:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Can't slip much past me..

[jberryhill]

15. So, you are saying that you aren't very dense?

[pangaia]

24. That's a trick question.

I refuse to answer.

[Archae]

12. I remember reading in the book "The Science In Science Fiction..."

That if two rotating black holes of equal mass collided, the explosion would sterilize star systems 10's of light years away.

(!)

[arely staircase]

16. What is the difference between a black hole and the 'singularity'

our universe was before the big bang? And what did and is the universe expanding in to? I know its nothing but how can the universe keep growing to occupy more and more nothing? And if you can answer those questions like you are talking to someone who knows nothing that would be great.

[longship]

18. I don't think anybody knows the answer to that.

Richard Feynman answered the question, "Why is there something instead of nothing?" very simply. His answer was a pithy, "Because nothing is unstable." (A real thoughtful response.)

And the universe is not expanding into anything, apparently.

Too bad that cosmology is such a mind fuck if one does not understand the math. Quantum physics is a bitch. And quantum gravity theories do not yet exist. So we're kind of stuck right now. (And no, string theory is not likely the answer -- my money is on the expansion of what works now, quantum field theory.)

[arely staircase]

19. Good. Then I dont feel so bad.

Thanks

[longship]

20. There are top people working on it!

[rug]

23. First. it was the icebergs . . . .