From Black holes to the infinity of the universe - Awesome space images

[packman]

View of the earth from behind the rings of Saturn




Stars - Stars mind you - revolving around a black hole

More mind-blowing pixs and gifs:


https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/12/18/20995427/astronomy-pluto-black-hole-mars-curiosity-rosetta

[CrispyQ]

1. Fascinating.

But how did that star loop around the black hole in 20 years? That seems impossibly fast, considering the scope of all this. What am I missing?

[caraher]

3. Fast, yes

But the orbit itself is comparable in size to that of Neptune (but highly eccentric, unlike the solar system's near-circular planetary orbits). The supermassive primary mass of the system (the black hole) means it has to move fast - up to 3% of the speed of light!

[CrispyQ]

4. Thank you for the explanation and the link! -nt

[spanone]

2. A M A Z I N G!!!!!!

[Glassunion]

5. Every time we go on vacation, it's usually somewhere remote.

With all of the light pollution in our area, it really makes it hard to view the stars.

But on each of our trips to Vermont, Maine, Wyoming, Ireland, Quebec, etc... I always make sure we spend some time stargazing.

It's strange how (if you really think about it), when you find yourself looking up at the stars. You're not really looking up, but instead your looking out into the abyss of our universe. You're just merely held in place by the mass of our little organic spaceship that is flying around our local star at about 67,000 mph. Add to that, the fact that we are being tugged by that star as it plods its way around the galactic core at 490,000 mph, which in turn (the galaxy) is rushing along at 37,000 mph towards the Great Attractor.

But when I look out, and think about those millions of spots of light, and the incredible distances between all of them. You cannot help but reflect on how truly small you are. Most of those points of light are simply stars in our own galaxy, but there are billions and billions of other galaxies out there. As science is showing us, we are finding out that planets are not rare at all.

Makes on wonder if there is life out there. I'd like to think that perhaps somewhere out among those stars, that there is another little planet. Orbiting its own star, and just maybe there is someone out there catching a glimpse of our star, wondering the same thing as me.

I'd love nothing more than to have an advanced culture visit us. I'd only make a simple, single request of these star travelers. Either take me with you, or vaporize me. We broke this one, and I'd like to get off.

[Stuart G]

6. Most Incredible, Great Post!!! Thank You for posting..K and R....I got to say this, I grew up when

space travel was an ...imagination and fantasy There had been no space craft or satellite launches of any kind. There was a TV program called ..Disneyland that envisioned and tried to show what it might be like, but that was science fiction. Here we have real pictures of space from a satellite that we launched and followed.
..And, here we are many years later. Looking at pictures sent back from Saturn by one of many satellites, and I am sitting at a machine that was also only imagined in the 50s. I wonder how many who read these words know what happened on October 4, 1957?...I remember because it was the official start of the space age. Sputnik I was launched on that date. The Russians launched the first satellite, when our country was expected to be the one..So much has happened.
...One more space story. Please hang in there, it is short. There was a space show on TV called, "Star Trek" In that show the space travelers talked to the mother ship on a devise called a "communicator." Captain Kirk would talk into that, and say, "Beam me up Scotty"
...Today we call them cell phones, and many people have them. We say "Is dinner ready? If it is, I will be there in 30 minutes.. Quite a change from, "Beam me up Scotty..

[malaise]

7. Absolutely beautiful

Thanks and a Happy New Year to you and yours