Yeah, saw this on the Today Show. Sort of embarrassing for NASA.

What's embarrassing is the fact that our government continually eviscerates NASA's budget but hands out enough pork every year to send us to mars and back again several times over...fucking intellectual midgets

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What's embarrassing is the fact that our government continually eviscerates NASA's budget but hands out enough pork every year to send us to mars and back again several times over...fucking intellectual midgets

Pop Quiz: Can anyone identify the large bright light at the center of the galaxy? (Photo taken by professional)

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What's embarrassing is the fact that our government continually eviscerates NASA's budget but hands out enough pork every year to send us to mars and back again several times over...fucking intellectual midgets

dlb, You're grinding your axe to smithereens!

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Pop Quiz: Can anyone identify the large bright light at the center of the galaxy? (Photo is professional)

That's Buddha's/NFS's Laser Show Tweak.

We had a lot of luck on Venus
We always had a ball on Mars
Meeting all the groovey people
We've rocked the Milky Way so far
We danced around with Borealice
We're space truckin' round the the stars
Come on let's go Space Truckin'

Remember when we did the moonshot
And Pony Trekker led the way
We'd move to the Canaveral moonstop
And everynaut would dance and sway
We got music in our solar system
We're space truckin' round the stars
Come on let's go Space Truckin'

The fireball that we rode was moving
But now we've got a new machine
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah the freaks said
Man those cats can really swing
They got music in their solar system
They've rocked around the Milky Way
They dance around the Borealice
They're Space Truckin' everyday
Come on

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That's Buddha's/NFS's Laser Show Tweak.

We will eventually sell that tweak, but the expense of placing entire galaxies inside each photon becomes cost prohibitive.

We've gone beyond quantum chromodynamics and have been working with D-branes, black p-branes and Neveu-Schwarz 5-branes.

And, as anyone knows, branes are in short supply in this hobby - especially when we are assembling in 11 dimensions. That costs extra.

That's a fucking black hole, man. Nasty motherfucker too. That is also an image of something tens of millions of years ago. Quite fascinating when you think about it. It is probably tens of thousands of lights years across that galaxy. That thing in the center is going to suck it up. It is also a spiral galaxy similar to our own galaxy.

Very good. I win a cookie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW_LnHDTm...PL&index=41

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That's a fucking black hole, man. Nasty motherfucker too. That is also an image of something tens of millions of years ago. Quite fascinating when you think about it. It is probably tens of thousands of lights years across that galaxy. That thing in the center is going to suck it up. It is also a spiral galaxy similar to our own galaxy.

Very good. I win a cookie!

Extra Credit: If the large bright object in the center of the galaxy is a black hole, why can we see it? A black hole - even a supermassive one - is way too small to be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope, or any telescope. Furthermore, a black hole - by definition - doesn't allow light to escape.

Lamont Sanford- Junk Dealer, Astrophysicist.

Would that be the light caused by the event horizon?

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Would that be the light caused by the event horizon?

Bingo! The light is produced by high speed swirling gases and matter being dragged into the hole around the event horizon.

Someone let NC know these are the words to a real rock song

Great bands write great songs

Bands who play Chuckie Cheese on saturday afternoons write bad songs !!

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Would that be the light caused by the event horizon?

This one is really big.

It's what is left of the blown up star. Dust, gas, Buddha, you know, shit like that.

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Would that be the light caused by the event horizon?

Bingo! The light is produced by high speed swirling gases and matter being dragged into the hole around the event horizon.

Actually, it is falling into the hole. Black holes don't suck though I used the terminology myself.

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Would that be the light caused by the event horizon?

Bingo! The light is produced by high speed swirling gases and matter being dragged into the hole around the event horizon.

Actually, it is falling into the hole. Black holes don't suck though I used the terminology myself.

I can see you're a stickler for just the right semantic terminology.

You're just mad because a junk dealer can recognize a black hole.

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Someone let NC know these are the words to a real rock song

Great bands write great songs

Bands who play Chuckie Cheese on saturday afternoons write bad songs !!

step forward into the now.. kip winger was not a good songwriter

Way before his time

You should check out the 60s & 70's when rock was current and relevant, not starbucks mood music.

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You're just mad because a junk dealer can recognize a black hole.

I don't get mad. I get even. Here's another pop quiz.

What is the size of the black hole in the second photo (Sombrero galaxy) and what is its axis of spin?

There's a gold star waiting for you.

That's not fair. That requires homework.

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That's not fair. That requires homework.

Part 1: The supermassive black hole in the center of the Sombrero galaxy is one billion solar masses. Part 2 was a trick question. The spin of the black hole in Sombrero cannot be determined by inspection. It cannot be assumed the spin of the black hole is in the same direction as the spin of the galaxy, since the supermassive black hole's mass, while large, is not nearly large enough to influence the spin of the galaxy, which is much more massive than the black hole. Most of the mass of the galaxy is located far enough away from the black hole that it's not influenced by the black hole's gravity. If the black hole had visible jets, which this one doesn't, then the spin axis would be obvious.

You teach astronomy?

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You teach astronomy?

Not that I'm aware of.