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- Portrait of a Doomed Asteroid
A new study provides a possible explanation of mysterious X-ray flares detected by the Chandra K-ray Observatory for several years in the region of Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. The study suggests a cloud around Sgr A*, a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, which contains hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets that have been stripped from their parent stars. The flares occur when asteroids of six miles or larger in radius are consumed by the black hole. An asteroid that undergoes a close encounter with another object, such as a star or planet, can be thrown into an orbit headed towards Sgr A*. If the asteroid passes within about 100 million miles of the black hole, roughly the distance between the Earth and the sun, it is torn into pieces by the tidal forces from the black hole. These fragments would then be vaporized by friction as they pass through the hot, thin gas flowing onto Sgr A*, similar to a meteor heating up and glowing as it falls through Earth's atmosphere. A flare is produced and eventually the remains of the asteroid are swallowed by the black hole. Image Credit: Illustrations: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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Monthly Archives: September 2009
Powerpoint – Orientation
My day job is somewhat hard to explain to people so I generally try not to. One of the aspects of it is having to distill the essences of complex systems into key points that can be easily understood by … Continue reading
Posted in Humor
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TR – Art Appreciation
The good folks over at The Art of Manliness have taken the “motivator” comcept in a most acceptable direction. There are a wide variety of them on their site with various historical characters, as well as some other great daily … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, History
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Cultural Observations
At some point int he past I may have pointed you towards a number of different cultural observations that describe the way that our nation’s character has been shifting since the 1960′s. The interesting thing is that the cultural shift … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
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Aging
Aging sucks. I finally broke down and had my eyes checked… reading glasses suck. I am not giving in easily to father time, and will fight to the end. But, then things like this crop up and it puts this … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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Situational Awareness
Now here’s some good advice that is basically self defence 101. “Exactly right,” I said, “Carrying a gun won’t do you any good if you don’t pay attention. The first thing you have to do is realize you live in … Continue reading
Posted in Self Defense
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TR – Action
The good folks over at The Art of Manliness have taken the “motivator” comcept in a most acceptable direction. There are a wide variety of them on their site with various historical characters, as well as some other great daily … Continue reading
Posted in Heroes, History
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