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NASA and the ESA have teamed up to measure how fast a black hole, that weighs 2 million times more than our Sun, spins — and the result’s mind boggling.
Using two X-ray space observatories, the space agencies have measured the spin of the black hole which lies at the centre of a galaxy called NGC 1365. Turns out that it rotates almost as fast as Einstein’s theory of gravity will allow — at almost the speed of light. Fiona Harrison, one of the researchers involved in the project, explains:
“We can trace matter as it swirls into a black hole using X-rays emitted from regions very close to the black hole. The radiation we see is warped and distorted by the motions of particles and the black hole’s incredibly strong gravity.”
From there, they could work out the rate or rotation. It’s a big step forward in the understanding of black hole science: the finding is actually a by-product of understanding how x-rays are warped in the presence of black holes. That understanding can also be applied to other, similar, celestial bodies, and help astronomers work out how other galaxies form and evolve. [NASA]
Its an odd feeling but there is something about Black Holes that really interests me.
I would love to see one close up, obviously at a very safe distance, obviously not actually seeing it either…
The blue bean going into or out off the hole looks like the UNEXPLAINED BLUE SPIRAL LIGHT SEEN IN SKIES OVER NORWAY.
Wow. Apparently the gravity is so strong, the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. So basically anything it pulls in can’t ever get out.
Well, not till the singularity destabilises, assuming that’s even a thing.
You cannot ‘exceed’ the speed of light. Just picking nits here
Escape velocity is the velocity required to escape the gravity of the object, it’s more a measure of energy than of velocity so it can exceed the speed of light.
Anywhere closer than the Schwarzchild radius and the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light
I think you’re confusing terms.
Escape velocity is calculated by comparing how much potential energy something has at it’s current position, compared to how much it has at infinity. Therefore it’s really a measure of energy. At any point inside the event horizon the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light.
Yes, that’s why you can’t escape the event horizon – the necessary velocity to escape would exceed the speed of light.
Looking back, I’m not sure why I even wrote that like it was amazing. That’s how all black holes work…