Fastest Spinning Black Hole Ever Found 204
brian0918 writes, "NewScientist reports that researchers in Cambridge have detected a black hole spinning at nearly 1,000 times per second — the fastest ever recorded. From the article: 'McClintock's team examined a black hole in our galaxy called GRS 1915+105, which lies about 36,000 light years away. They found the innermost stable orbit around GRS 1915 is so close that the black hole must be spinning at nearly 1000 times per second. The finding supports the idea that only fast-spinning stars can collapse to create powerful explosions called long gamma-ray bursts.'" The Astrophysical Journal abstract is open but you have to be a subscriber to read the full article there.
In the spirit of Dave Barry... (Score:2, Insightful)
The moon is green cheese (Score:5, Insightful)
People, what we have is a model, not an observation. As TFA says, this model is based on assumptions, though fewer assumptions in the past:"Now, astronomers have measured the spin of a black hole with a new method that requires fewer assumptions."
The black hole may indeed be spinning at 1000 revs, or is might just be that one of the model assumptions is invalid.
Re:why spinning it good (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Multi-Dimensional Universe (Score:5, Insightful)
Moderators: Big words != informative.
Re:Orbiting at no more than 30 miles from the cent (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The moon is green cheese (Score:4, Insightful)
If you believe that, you had better not fly. GPS systems only work because of General Relativity - Newton's work isn't accurate enough. GPS is proof of Einstein's work. Instead of being 'literally unusable', the information we collect is vital for so much of current technology.
So your attempt to disprove global warming by this argument just won't work. Sorry.
Re:Black holes Vs. Planets (Score:3, Insightful)
Erm, if there was a planet with a gravitational pull equivalent to a black hole, it would for all intents and purposes be a black hole. A hunk of matter with enough mass to equal the gravitational pull of a black hole would also not emit light. It would also have to be incredibly spread out. It would also have enough mass to start fusion and would either be a gas giant or would collapse and form a star, and then collapse more as the fusion/fission process wouldn't be enough to keep it expanded and would become a black hole anyway, sigularity and all.
So yea... it would be easy to find by using gravity inferences, like how they find black holes anyway, but it would still not emit light. Thank you, Captain Semantic