Thursday, December 11, 2008

Beyond Any Reasonable Doubt: A Supermassive Black Hole Lives in Centre of Our Galaxy

By tracking individual stars orbiting a common point, ESO researchers have derived the best empirical evidence yet for the existence of a 4 million solar mass black hole. All the stars are moving rapidly, one star even completed a full orbit within those 16 years, allowing astronomers to indirectly study the mysterious beast driving our galaxy.

2 comments:

mad30 said...

It raises so many fascinating new avenues of theoretical cosmology -cosmic evolutionary possibilities- if black holes are not only proven, but their existence proven at the core of every galaxy. Ideas such as the Big Bang and Big Crunch, open and closed systems, would need to be totally reevaluated in light of emerging Black Hole physics.

Personally, I believe there is also a very deep religious and spiritual message entwined with this research as well. A metaphysical angle which is rarely acknowledged in scientific circles.

Black Holes, arguably the most powerful force in the universe, may also be the greatest source and mechanism for life. And what does that say about our humanistic notions of death?

Mac said...

There's a marvelous theory which suggest that universes "reproduce" via black holes . . .