Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Black Holes Beyond Imagination


From the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Honolulu: The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has found in cluster 3C438 one of the most energetic events ever. This cluster has mass a quadrillion (10^15) times that of our Sun. The easiest explanation is that this is the collision between two giant objects. However, only one peak in X-Ray emission is visible. If two clusters collided there would be two peaks.

Evidence indicates that this is the ouburst from a single massive Black Hole. If so, it is the largest outburst ever seen. Such a massive flow of energy would require a Black Hole to swallow 30 billion solar masses over a period of only 200 million years, or 150 Suns each year. Old theories of Black Hole and cluster formation can not explain this.

Using the XMM-Newton telescope, graduate student Laura Brenneman has found that the central Black Hole in galaxy MCG-6-30-15 is spinning at least 98.7 percent of the maximum rate allowed by General Relativity. It hjas been thought that supermassive Black Holes form via collisions between smaller objects. If so, their spin rate would be small because different angular momenta would cancel out. This Black Hole must have grown on its own, by accretion.

Everywhere we find galaxies and clusters they are anchored by central singularities. Increasing evidence suggests that supermassive Black Holes are primordial, formed very shortly after the Big Bang. Size of a primordial Black Hole is limited by a horizon distance related to the speed of light. All these discoveries point to a "c change" in physics.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Kea said...

Yes, a single X-ray peak seems to clinch the matter, since a merger would need to be recent enough to distinguish the clusters. Thanks for yet another informative post!

6:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As an interested non-physicist, I am pleased that at least one professional disagrees with "dark energy". Had you presented at a now-past conference, I had persuaded tommaso to pose the following question "can we exclude the possibility that the apparent acceleration in the rate of expansion might simply be the result of our location at or near the bottom of a gravity well?"

The gist om my half-baked idea is that we might be located near the center of a "local" (local here meaning somewhat larger than the observable universe) super cluster, causing objects near the edge of this cluster to be red-shifted by gravity. While I am sure I will not understand the math, can you simply tell me in plain language whether this possibility is excluded, and whether, if it is possible, it might not be an alternate explaination to a changing C?

2:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oops........i meant blue shifted

2:50 AM  
Blogger L. Riofrio said...

Hello riqie, and I regret not being able to present at more places. You will find that many physicists quietly disagree with "dark energy." Some think that non-uniformity in the microwave background may be the result of our being near the centre of some local mass concentration. That is very similiar to your idea. Being near a gravity well would create effects very similiar to cosmic acceleration. Yes, your idea could also provide an explanation.

6:12 AM  
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10:14 PM  

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