Hungry Black Hole Spawns Bizarre Four-Armed Galaxy

[JSngry]

http://news.yahoo.com/hungry-black-hole-spawns-bizarre-four-armed-galaxy-223114529.html

wow...

Where most spiral galaxies have two twisting arms, a neighbor of the Milky Way is a four-armed monster. A new photo snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope, combined with observations by amateur astronomers, reveals these arms in stunning detail.

The galaxy Messier 106 lies about 20 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Hubble scientists released a video of the four-armed galaxy in addition to the new photo.

Beneath its pretty pink appearance, Messier 106 is harboring a monster black hole that is hungrily gobbling up matter at the galaxy's center.

This black hole, scientists say, may be the key to the galaxy's mysterious extra arms.

etc.

[PHILLYQ]

Stunning pix, thanks for posting them.

[JSngry]

And to think that there's a black hole in the center of this galaxy ravenously sucking its matter in...if I could even begin to get my head around the reality of that it would scare the living shit out of me.

Fortunately, yeah, stunning pictures. That goes a long way towards not trying to think about a whole freakin' galaxy getting sucked into a black hole. Seriously.

[Chuck Nessa]

Would you feel differently if the hole wasn't black? ;-)

Edited February 7, 2013 by Chuck Nessa

[king ubu]

maybe after all we should invest here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461687407/kickstarter-open-source-death-star

[Dan Gould]

And to think that there's a black hole in the center of this galaxy ravenously sucking its matter in...if I could even begin to get my head around the reality of that it would scare the living shit out of me.

Fortunately, yeah, stunning pictures. That goes a long way towards not trying to think about a whole freakin' galaxy getting sucked into a black hole. Seriously.

Seems to me I read somewhere there's nothing especially unique about galaxies having black holes at their center. And it if freaks you out too much, think of it like the fattest man at the absolute largest buffet you could ever imagine, raised to the hundredth power. Yeah, he's gonna eat it all eventually - but its going to take a long long, long long time.

[JSngry]

I have been that man once or twice. That's why it's so scary to think about.

[alankin]

Shades of Mr. Creosote.

[BruceH]

They've found that just about every galaxy (every large one, anyway) has a black hole in the center, so not only is there nothing unusual about it, but they seem to be necessary for the formation of spiral galaxies. They gobble up a lot of matter at first, but then the space around them is clear and the remaining stars are orbiting around them fast and far enough that they don't get sucked in.

[JSngry]

Which means that at some point all that will be left is black holes and then what?

[Big Wheel]

That's when the fun begins. And by "fun", I mean "probably an unfathomably cold and and large and empty universe where nothing much happens for pretty much forever."

[JSngry]

Oh, that I can love with.

(...it was either that or an ecm joke...)