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A comment on Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein Right. Parent comment

Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by tizzdogg on Thursday February 11, 2016 @02:32PM (#11082529)
Thanks, that's helpful. It's hard to get my head around the idea that an event so massive can be over so "quickly", without any residual longer-lasting effects.
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Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by valarauca1 on Thursday February 11, 2016 @04:47PM (#11083547)
>without any residual longer-lasting effects

A massive ripple in the very fabric of reality?

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Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by tizzdogg on Thursday February 11, 2016 @07:59PM (#11084617)
Well it sounds like a massive ripple in the fabric of reality which passes by us in a fraction of a second, never to be seen again. So from my non-physicist point of view, no it doesnt seem like a very long lasting effect, relative to us at least. Thanks for the snark though.
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Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by lutorm on Thursday February 11, 2016 @02:51PM (#11082680)
You're left with a big-ass black hole...
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Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by lmm on Thursday February 11, 2016 @07:38PM (#11084541)
There's a theorem that black holes have "no hair": two black holes of the same mass, charge and angular momentum are indistinguishable. So the merge must happen instantaneously: if the combined black hole were "sloshing" afterwards that would violate that theorem.
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Re:Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein R... by spacehome on Thursday February 11, 2016 @08:57PM (#11084812)
Whether or not black holes have "no hair" is currently an unsolved problem.

Hawking, for instance, believes that the Hawking Radiation from a black hole encodes the information that went into creating the hole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox...

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