PC Pals Forum
General Discussion => Science & Nature => Topic started by: sam on May 26, 2010, 04:46
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A detailed study of Chandra observations over ten years shows that M31* was in a very dim, or quiet, state from 1999 to the beginning of 2006. However, on January 6, 2006, the black hole became more than a hundred times brighter, suggesting an outburst of X-rays. This was the first time such an event had been seen from a supermassive black hole in the nearby, local universe. After the outburst, M31* entered another relatively dim state, but was almost ten times brighter on average than before 2006. The outburst suggests a relatively high rate of matter falling onto M31* followed by a smaller, but still significant rate.
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2010/m31/
-- Calling a black hole feeble makes me laugh. Also 'nearby'... yeah in a galaxy, far, far away!
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi71.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi126%2Fweirdspaceman%2Fm31.jpg&hash=3c36566c257d6646f523beb54b92f0b863fe675d)
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-- Calling a black hole feeble makes me laugh. Also 'nearby'... yeah in a galaxy, far, far away!
When I saw the headline I imagined it to be in the solar neighbourhood! ::)
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Even worse, just the neighbourhood. ;)
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When I saw the headline I imagined it to be in the solar neighbourhood! ::)
on a Universe scale its fairly close.. but given this is a journal read by the public I found it oddly confusing.... then again I find lots of science writing aimed at the public to be too sensationalist - not that I am in my talk ever. ;)
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Sensationalism attracts the attention of the public but I think it's a rotten way to promote science.
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people just don't stick with it.