Re:The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole
by kords on Thursday September 24, 2020 @02:06AM
(#24575750)
I wonder why it was easier to build an image of this black hole at 16.4 million parsecs (53 million light-years) from Earth and not the one from the center of our galaxy which is at 26,000 light-years.
Re:The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole
by Twixes on Thursday September 24, 2020 @03:27AM
(#24576205)
Saggitarius A* at the center of our galaxy is at the center of our galaxy, obscured by a soup of stars. This distant black hole on the other hand is positioned so that it's activity is visible to us.
Re:The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole
by ttul on Wednesday September 23, 2020 @11:20PM
(#24574924)
No. A black hole could orbit us at the distance of the moon and so long as its mass was similar to that of the moon, it would have no greater effect on our lives than the moon does.
Re:The wobbling shadow of the M87* black hole
by imglorp on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @02:07PM
(#24641682)
Nice. He answered most of my questions except one. How big does some object need to be to cause harm to Earth as it gets consumed by the black hole moon? Also, I guess we also need to talk about spin and how the accretion disk and quasar radiation beam are oriented to say if it's pointed at Earth or not.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/129/