...as thrilling as Science Fiction...

[radhak]

This is one of the pieces of news that makes you stop and ponder : Supermassive Black Hole blasts smaller galaxies. Almost as if the giant is acting violently with his lesser neighbours .

The numbers they quote is really 'astronomical' : the jets 'can be millions of light-years long and 1,000 light-years wide'. Recognizing that a 'light-year' is the distance covered by light in one year, that's some size for a jet of radiation/energy!

Mind you, what is seen now, started happening a million years ago and this could go on for another 100 million years more... !

Like I said, makes you ponder. And also, puts our short lives in perspective - maybe the non-existent college-funds for my kids is not that big a deal....

[JR]

maybe the non-existent college-funds for my kids is not that big a deal....

Boy, you went a long way - literally AND figuratively - for that justification. But hey, if works for you...




JR

[Russianwolf]

well, think of it this way.

1 Million years ago a star goes supernova and forms a black hole, the black hole is sending pulses of radiation straight at our sun. And we are 1.01 million light years fron this black hole.


Meaning, we could die at any moment from something that happened eons ago.

[LCHIEN]

there was one value quoted to me in astronomy class that simply made me hold my breath in awe... for some reason when I thought about it it was just truly astronomical.

Something about the density of matter in interstellar space, was on the order of a fractions of atoms per cubic mega-parsec.
Now a parsec is 3.25 Light years (a LY is 9.5 billion billion meters - how far light travels in a year) , so a cubic megaparsec is cube 3.25 million LY on a side.
Search through that space with a fine tooth comb and you probably won't find an atom to count.

That's empty!

[Uncle Cracker]

Something about the density of matter in interstellar space, was on the order of a fractions of atoms per cubic mega-parsec.
Now a parsec is 3.25 Light years (a LY is 9.5 billion billion meters - how far light travels in a year) , so a cubic megaparsec is cube 3.25 million LY on a side.
Search trhough that space and you probably won't find an atom to count.

That's about how far it is between tax deductions...

[germdoc]

I used to enjoy reading and thinking about such things. Now that I'm older and have lost a lot of brain cells, I reserved them for really important things like trying to remember where I parked the darned car, what time the Packers game is on this weekend, and the names of every musician who ever played with the Byrds.