Milky Way’s Black Hole Just Flared, Growing 75 Times as Bright for a Few Hours

Re:Milky Way’s Black Hole Just Flared, Growing 75 Times as B... by kaibee on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @12:24AM (#20692700)

So two potential scenarios:

A. Earth is going to be hit by a super-mega-death laser focusing the entire power output of a star into a concentrated beam.

B. A long long time ago, a very dense moon was very far from a supernova. Unfortunately, far is relative, and so is speed in space. Specifically, relative to Earth, the moon is now traveling 5% the speed of light and is on a collision course.

In scenario A, there is no way for us to see this coming, because information also cannot travel faster than light. The light is what kills us.

In scenario B, it is theoretically possible to see this rogue-moon coming, since it is possible for light to reflect off of it and reach us before the moon does.

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Re:Milky Way’s Black Hole Just Flared, Growing 75 Times as B... by m_mueller on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @02:39AM (#20693211)

Interesting hypothesis B. Can there be a zone around a supernova where it is strong enough to accelerate planetary objects but weak enough to not just turn them into dust and gas?

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Re:Milky Way’s Black Hole Just Flared, Growing 75 Times as B... by rocqua on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @05:40AM (#20693956)

Does it matter if it turns into dust or gas? As long as it stays clumped enough, we might still be screwed.

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Re:Milky Way’s Black Hole Just Flared, Growing 75 Times as B... by m_mueller on Thursday August 15, 2019 @04:32AM (#20703538)

I'd assume once a moon is a bunch of dust, it disperses so fast that what arrives in our solar system is not an issue for us, just part of the background galactic cloud.

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