Milky Way could hold hundred of rogue black holes: study

[unhappycamper]

ROGUE' black holes by the hundreds may be roaming Milky Way: astronomers.


Milky Way could hold hundred of rogue black holes: study
AFP
Published: Wednesday January 9, 2008

Hundreds of rogue black holes may be roaming around the Milky Way waiting to engulf stars and planets that cross their path, US astronomers said Wednesday.

The astronomers believe these "intermediate mass" black holes are invisible except in rare circumstances and have been spawned by mergers of black holes within globular clusters -- swarms of stars held together by their mutual gravity.

These black holes are unlikely to pose a threat to Earth, but may engulf nebulae, stars and planets that stray into their paths, the researchers said.

"These rogue black holes are extremely unlikely to do any damage to us in the lifetime of the universe," said Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Their danger zone, the Schwarzschild radius, (or gravitational radius) is really tiny, only a few hundred kilometers. There are far more dangerous things in our neighbourhood."


Rest of article at: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Milky_Way_could_hold_hundred_of_rog_01092008.html

[RuleOfNah]

1. "only a few hundred kilometers"

Hundreds of gravitational speed bumps drifting around, each about the size of a small war zone? And I thought we had Policy issues!

Does this fix the missing mass problems? Only small change?

[Peace Patriot]

2. Clearly, with the Bush Junta, we have been swallowed by one, and jettisoned into

an alternative universe in which Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were never born, the Bill of Rights was never written, the "balance of power" was never infused into the Constitution, the Constitution was never written and, instead, the American Revolution failed and the colonists became subject again to King George.

But the black hole was riddled with anomalies, leaving some of us with remnant memories of independence and democracy, and an entirely different history.

Can anyone think of a better explanation for what's happened? The U.S. government invading another country and slaughtering half a million people for their oil, the U.S. government torturing prisoners and holding prisoners for years without charges or trial, like something out of the Middle Ages, billions and billions of dollars missing from the federal coffers and no one cares, and all the elections in the country conducted on electronic machines run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations?

Need I go on? "Unlikely to pose a threat to Earth." Right. And how would they know if it had already happened?

Never forget, friends! Never forget what it was like to live in a country in which every vote was counted!

[gtar100]

3. A psychological black hole certainly explains a lot

It's first sign was in how dense so many people became. Particularly when Reagan came around.