Saturday, September 11, 2010

APOD 1.2

This week my post is on the pic of the day on Sept. 5, 20101: GRO J1655-40: Evidence for a Spinning Black Hole. It is an image of a black hole that is spinning and at the center is a swirling whirlpool of hot gas. The spinning of the gas is caused by x-rays that the holes emit, but they also pulsate periodically which is why it flickers. Still, this is still being researched.
Also, I found this image very interesting. Even though it was created from someone else's idea of how a black hole should look, I never imagined black holes to have any color or even spin. I had the generic idea that it was literally just a big black hole. Following up on the links, I enjoyed reading more into what a black hole actually is the the answers and explanations of FAQs about black holes like "What would happen if I were to be sucked into a black hole?" Depending on the size of the hole, one would ultimately feel stretched out until you were ripped apart due to the tidal forces. Even though this is expected I always figured that things would appear different from the inside of the hole but apparently, things don't appear too much different besides a little distortion. Reading about this pic of the day really gave me a better understanding of what black holes are like.

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