“they came and went ; as shifty as the wind…. and though it would be a lonely walk, she’d be sure to enjoy it.”
-excerpt from “my life”
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(via mrcheyl)
(via two-centsworth)
Giant Elliptical Galaxy Harbors Largest Known Black Hole in Universe
The black hole at the center of the super giant elliptical galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster fifty million light-years away is the most massive black hole for which a precise mass has been measured—6.6 billion solar masses. Orbiting the galaxy is an abnormally large population of about 12,000 globular clusters, compared to 150-200 globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way. The team theorized that the M87 black hole grew to its massive size by merging with several other black holes. M87 is the largest, most massive galaxy in the nearby universe, and is thought to have been formed by the merging of 100 or so smaller galaxies. The M87 black hole’s large size and relative proximity, astronomers think that it could be the first black hole that they could actually “see.”
In 2011, using the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, a team of astronomers calculated the black hole’s mass, which is vastly larger than the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, which is about 4 million solar masses. The black hole’s event horizon, 20 billion km across “could swallow our solar system whole.”
In order to calculate the black hole’s mass, the astronomers measured how fast surrounding stars orbit the black hole. They found that, on average, the stars orbit at speeds of nearly 500 km/s (for comparison, the sun orbits the black hole at the center of the Milky Way at about 220 km/s). From these observations, the astronomers could come up with what they say is the most accurate estimate for the mass of a supermassive black hole.
Future calculations may attempt to calculate the size of another black hole with a roughly estimated mass of 18 billion solar masses, which is located in a galaxy about 3.5 billion light-years away.
In the image at the top of the page, a central jet is surrounded by nearby bright arcs and dark cavities in the multimillion degree Celsius atmosphere of M87. Much further out, at a distance of about fifty thousand light years from the galaxy’s center, faint rings can be seen and two spectacular plumes extend beyond the rings. These features, shown in X-rays, together with VLA radio observations, are dramatic evidence that repetitive outbursts from the central supermassive black hole have been affecting the entire galaxy for a hundred million years or more.
The Daily Galaxy via Chandra X-Ray Observatory
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We never look back
Love too fast
Fall too hard
Too blindly.
When you’re in love, you jump. From the highest cliffs, over the lowest valleys. All because someone you trust promised to catch you. You never think you just…jump.
The first time we jump for love, it’s beautiful. Our hearts are…
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