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"This relativistic jet was aimed directly at Earth — and astronomers were staring directly into the beam." Great. Something else to worry about. Seriously, th
by vertnerd 4y ago
"This relativistic jet was aimed directly at Earth — and astronomers were staring directly into the beam."
Great. Something else to worry about.
Seriously, though: are jets like these generally detectable and would we know if there are any of them making their way out from the center of our own galaxy?
- sudhirj 4y ago> Great. Something else to worry about. Anthropic principle applies here - the universe is huge and there's already tons of dangerous things pointing at Earth. The only reason we've evolved enough to notice the danger is because we have protection from it.
- ordu 4y agoWe rather had protection. Anthropic principle tell us nothing about our future. Only about our past.
- hiptobecubic 4y agoWell sure, but after many billions of years of the protection working and with no known reason to suspect that that's changed, it's not something I'm actively worried about.
- sandworm101 4y agoNope. They move at the speed of light. Our first detection of such a death start might be our oceans boiling. But the reality is that astrophysical jets come out at right angles from the rotational plane of the black hole. All the biggest black holes rotate in the same plane as their host galaxy. We are far away in the outer spiral arms, in the plane. Any dangerous jet will likely be at 90 degrees from us, missing earth by many thousands of light-years.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoNit: Relativistic jets move at significant fractions of the speed of light, but not at the speed of light.
- sandworm101 4y agoThe material of the jet is sub-light, but the radiation emitted by that material is lightspeed. If I throw a rock at you it is not at lightspeed. But if I heat first that rock to a billion degrees the light it is emitting will it will burn you before it hits you. The material of a jet is like a million-degree rock an AU across. We will be ashes long before any physical material hits earth.
- ordu 4y ago> We will be ashes long before any physical material hits earth. Earth is a moving target, so will physical material hit Earth after we have been incinerated by the radiation of the jet? Or can we get hit by a physical material after we had dodged radiation?
- ComputerGuru 4y agoIs there a reason black holes only rotate in one plane? I would naively have expected a 3D rotation to result from their formation.