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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: April 2010
Boomershoot 2010
Finally a few minutes to put forth some thoughts on my Boomershoot adventure this year. I have given you some of the highlights of the efforts it took for me to get to Orofino for the event. This year my … Continue reading
Posted in Boomershoot
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Travel
Things have been busy lately, and not a lot of blogging happening. To give you a brief idea, I am writing this from a hotel room in Orofino Idaho. Yesterday I was in New York City. Between 4 PM EDT … Continue reading
Posted in Boomershoot
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Unintended Consequences
The phrase of the year (or two), “Unintended Consequences”. I think we have certainly seen a lot of that out of our current administration. Today, we see reports of the transfer of significant military hardware within the middle east. Specifically … Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy, Politics, Terrorism
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Appropriateness
Go over to Alan’s web site and read this little post. It will only take a couple of seconds, I’ll wait. SnarkyBytes » Kurt Schlichter On Moral Equivalency. Are you back? Sometimes “Hell Yes!” is the most appropriate phrase in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
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Obama Limiting Nuclear Responses
Wow, another surprise. I think most Presidents have always had contingencies and levels of escalations defined in their minds before they ever had to approach a situation involving the use of special weapons. This has to be the first time … Continue reading
Posted in Presidential Politics
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