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Dear Mr. President-elect, Please Don’t Make Me a Big Loser on Guns

By Bill Schneider

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By Sisyphus, 8-06-07
As always, very informative. Thanks Irwin.
By Randy Holst, 8-06-07
Irwin,

If a black hole is at the center of our galaxy and a star gets too close to it and gets torn apart and sucked in, how is any light or radiation able to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole?

Randy Holst
By 6degrees, 8-07-07
Randy,

First, when such an event occurs, the star doesn't fall straight into the black hole, as it is necessary to conserve angular momentum. Instead, it orbits the BH while tidal forces stretch and contort the dying star, pulling off material which forms an accretion disk around the BH. As this material spirals inward due to friction (a mechanism which allows it to transfer that angular momentum outwards), it gets heated to extremely high temperatures, resulting in the generation of a great deal of high energy photons (x-ray and gamma ray) as well as charged particles like electrons and positrons (anti-electrons). The BH very likely possesses a powerful magnetic field, which causes these charged particles to be channeled into beams of radiation shooting out along the axis of that field.

Until the stellar material reaches the event horizon of the BH (where the escape velocity equals the velocity of light), the light and particles it generates are still able to escape and be observed by someone located far away from all that action...like us!
By J. Gelband, 8-08-07
You are so much cooler than my astrology 101 professor in college. Thanks for the update, Irwin.
By J. Gelband, 8-08-07
No wait, I meant astronomy.

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