Science Channel lastnight 8/2/05 Black Holes

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2005-08-03 10:43am

Did anyone see the program that was on The Science Channel lastnight (8/2/05) about Supermasive Black Holes? They were theorizing that every galaxy has a black hole at its center.

Dakarne · Post by **Dakarne** » 2005-08-03 10:58am

It would actually make sense, considering that Galaxies are constantly being turned around by some Gravitational force...

I think a Supermassive Black Hole is just the thing that would have enough gravity...

I have a theory (whether it's true or not is up for debate), that whatever caused that Blackhole must have been a Superlarge Celestial Object which detonated, and what was left at the Centre Collapsed into a Black Hole.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2005-08-03 11:12am

From the program, I gathered that they didn't know how or why these black holes formed, but the galaxies initially started as gas.

One thing that always confused me about black holes in general is that they have this gas jetting out in a straight line from the center. I would think that something with enough gravity to pull stuff in, as they are theorized to do, would also keep these gases from jetting out as well.

ClaysGhost · Post by **ClaysGhost** » 2005-08-03 11:35am

Dakarne wrote:It would actually make sense, considering that Galaxies are constantly being turned around by some Gravitational force...

I think a Supermassive Black Hole is just the thing that would have enough gravity...

No, that's the rest of the galactic mass. Supermassive black holes aren't expected to hold galaxies together, although it seems the mass of the black hole and the mass of the bulge (in spirals) are quite strongly correlated.

I have a theory (whether it's true or not is up for debate), that whatever caused that Blackhole must have been a Superlarge Celestial Object which detonated, and what was left at the Centre Collapsed into a Black Hole.

Central black holes are likely to be the result of many mergers of smaller objects. The first black holes would probably form from very large stars by today's standards, though.

Magnetic wrote: I would think that something with enough gravity to pull stuff in, as they are theorized to do, would also keep these gases from jetting out as well.

The jets (and the accretion disc) lie outside the event horizon of the black hole. The disc is rotating rapidly and the jets can travel at substantial fractions of the speed of light. There are many unanswered questions about the jet-forming process, but the key factors are that there's lots of angular momentum stored in the accretion disc system, and that there are quite strong magnetic fields that pass through the matter in the disc. The mechanism for the acceleration is then that these powerful magnetic fields accelerate the plasma in the accretion disc into jets emitted from the poles. You might find this interesting.