Boffins get black hole double-vision

The Messier 22 globular star cluster has yielded a messier-than-expected observation: instead of the black hole astronomers expected to find in its centre, there are two. Conducted by the University of Southampton’s Dr Tom Maccarone, Michigan State University assistant professor Jay Strader and others, and using the NSF’s Karl …

[Neoc]

Sounds like blak-hole boffinry just got messier.

Mine's the one with the Disney movie in the pocket.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Interesting stuff. M22 is magnificent in my 8" scope, as my son (10) also agreed to when we observed it from France this summer. I will tell him he has seen the home of a black-hole binary system. I bet he will be excited.

[John Smith 19]

I saw what you did there.

But bad puns aside this refutes a fairly big prediction and gives some interesting results to chew on.

Assuming the information is solid the next question is how common are single black hole cores at the centre of globular clusters (should have been 100% but apparently not) Vs multi-hole clusters?

[Great Bu]

Re: I saw what you did there.

I do enjoy a multi-hole cluster.......

[roomey]

time travel?

I just saw a vid there with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in which a question was asked, what happens if two black holes collide. The answer was, according to the general theory of relativity, if you were to pass in between them, space is so distorted you would travel back to where you started from, before you left. Backwards time travel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAD25s53wmE good vid

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Re: time travel?

However, as you travel through this mangled space, you might e in for some serious mangling yourself. Bit of a downer, that.

[illiad]

Re: time travel?

LOL, so little is known, that you could say just about anything.... :/

If you fell asleep during the lecture, the problem about going even near to a black hole, is that gravity has a high gradient, ie it changes very fast!!

going feet first...

note the numbers here are only for demonstration, not reality!!!

your feet will feel the the force of 100G, your middle will feel the force of 10 G, your head will feel the force of 2G... end result, your body will be stretched out to more than 100 times its length... think you could survive that???

so IF you could time travel, etc, the only thing that arrives would be atoms or human soup!!!

[Graham Marsden]

Re: time travel?

There was a young lady named Bright,

Whose speed was far faster than light.

She went out one day,

In a relative way,

And returned the previous night!

— Reginald Buller

[Lamb0]

Another talking point...

@ public star parties with my home brewed 8" (The Mortar).

My friend's 14" (the Black Mamba) shows M22 with fantastic detail!

Come One, Come All... see the Wonders of the Universe!