Old adage: It’s better to give than to receive. What if that were a universal principle? Maybe it is.
Marco Chiaberge of the Space Telescope Science Institute says that a there is a supermassive black hole apparently running out of its galaxy at 7.5 million kph.* Doesn’t affect you. I know. But now we have another big number to deal with, one that makes the term mind-boggling insufficient to describe our brains’ inabilities to wrap their cognitive functions around a fact. The black hole, designated “quasar 3C 186” must be traveling via gravity waves generated by a force equivalent to “100 million stars exploding simultaneously.”
“So, what do you want me to do with this fact?” you ask.
“You can file it. You never know when you’ll be at some dull party. In your attempt to liven things up, you can say loud enough for more than a few to hear, ‘Did you guys hear about 3C 186?’ You know that opening is going to get some attention. Then, when they all gather and lean in to hear the gossip, you can say, ‘Yep, got kicked out. Wasn’t doin’ anything but mindin’ its business, when all of a sudden Wham! From out of nowhere this big wave comes along and sends poor 3C aflyin’ with nothing to hold onto. Almost ripped the whole accretion disk from the event horizon. It’s still goin’ and will be out of its galaxy in about 20 million years.’
You’ll get everyone’s attention for sure with that little item. Probably also get you a date with someone enamored of your erudition.”
Seems that even being big is no guarantee against ostracism. Can’t ask for something much bigger than a supermassive black hole, and yet, there is it, being thrown out of its former society of stars. And—here’s what makes the expulsion really interesting—before being thrown out, 3C 186 was in the center or very near the center of its galaxy. As dark as a supermassive black hole is, all such masses certainly command by size and position the center spotlight—even in gamma and X-rays.
There are no guarantees in social settings of any kind. Those who place their value in their position at the center of their personal galaxies can find themselves pushed out by forces unforeseen. Best for us all to realize how fickle social galaxies are. But one of the endearing characteristics of some of those who remain central for a long time is related to that adage about giving rather than receiving.
Oh! Well. Quasar 3C 186 will always have itself, its consuming, inward-collapsing self. Maybe that’s the reason that it received its ejection. Black holes, regardless of size, are a bit—make that very—selfish. They consume everything around them, and they don’t give back what they take in. They are, if nothing else, the universe’s biggest receivers. Nay, the biggest takers. If stars could understand human compassion, they would label 3C 186 as one of the least compassionate and most self-centered of entities. Black holes are stellar gourmands, too; they consume anything in vast quantities. They are insatiable dictators, commanding and demanding anything in their gravitational empires.
Good riddance to 3C 186. Quasars are among the brightest of objects in the universe, but that brightness comes with a cost to anything nearby. All the light that nearby objects shine on the stage of a black hole falls irretrievably into the blackness. The object that is usually so central is so because it takes from all around it to enlarge its own mass. That’s a diet of an ill-gotten destiny. How long till all around the receiver either tire of serving or simply run out of stuff to give? Although some dictators have survived until they faded away, many have been ejected from the societies they once controlled.
And outside the society that supported it, the receiver learns there is little to consume. The feast on locals is over.
The adage does seem to be a universal principle, and the expulsion of 3C 186 is an example of what happens to an entity that chooses receiving over giving.
* https://www.sciencenews.org/article/supermassive-black-hole-gets-kicked-galactic-curb?tgt=more
Marco Chiaberge of the Space Telescope Science Institute says that a there is a supermassive black hole apparently running out of its galaxy at 7.5 million kph.* Doesn’t affect you. I know. But now we have another big number to deal with, one that makes the term mind-boggling insufficient to describe our brains’ inabilities to wrap their cognitive functions around a fact. The black hole, designated “quasar 3C 186” must be traveling via gravity waves generated by a force equivalent to “100 million stars exploding simultaneously.”
“So, what do you want me to do with this fact?” you ask.
“You can file it. You never know when you’ll be at some dull party. In your attempt to liven things up, you can say loud enough for more than a few to hear, ‘Did you guys hear about 3C 186?’ You know that opening is going to get some attention. Then, when they all gather and lean in to hear the gossip, you can say, ‘Yep, got kicked out. Wasn’t doin’ anything but mindin’ its business, when all of a sudden Wham! From out of nowhere this big wave comes along and sends poor 3C aflyin’ with nothing to hold onto. Almost ripped the whole accretion disk from the event horizon. It’s still goin’ and will be out of its galaxy in about 20 million years.’
You’ll get everyone’s attention for sure with that little item. Probably also get you a date with someone enamored of your erudition.”
Seems that even being big is no guarantee against ostracism. Can’t ask for something much bigger than a supermassive black hole, and yet, there is it, being thrown out of its former society of stars. And—here’s what makes the expulsion really interesting—before being thrown out, 3C 186 was in the center or very near the center of its galaxy. As dark as a supermassive black hole is, all such masses certainly command by size and position the center spotlight—even in gamma and X-rays.
There are no guarantees in social settings of any kind. Those who place their value in their position at the center of their personal galaxies can find themselves pushed out by forces unforeseen. Best for us all to realize how fickle social galaxies are. But one of the endearing characteristics of some of those who remain central for a long time is related to that adage about giving rather than receiving.
Oh! Well. Quasar 3C 186 will always have itself, its consuming, inward-collapsing self. Maybe that’s the reason that it received its ejection. Black holes, regardless of size, are a bit—make that very—selfish. They consume everything around them, and they don’t give back what they take in. They are, if nothing else, the universe’s biggest receivers. Nay, the biggest takers. If stars could understand human compassion, they would label 3C 186 as one of the least compassionate and most self-centered of entities. Black holes are stellar gourmands, too; they consume anything in vast quantities. They are insatiable dictators, commanding and demanding anything in their gravitational empires.
Good riddance to 3C 186. Quasars are among the brightest of objects in the universe, but that brightness comes with a cost to anything nearby. All the light that nearby objects shine on the stage of a black hole falls irretrievably into the blackness. The object that is usually so central is so because it takes from all around it to enlarge its own mass. That’s a diet of an ill-gotten destiny. How long till all around the receiver either tire of serving or simply run out of stuff to give? Although some dictators have survived until they faded away, many have been ejected from the societies they once controlled.
And outside the society that supported it, the receiver learns there is little to consume. The feast on locals is over.
The adage does seem to be a universal principle, and the expulsion of 3C 186 is an example of what happens to an entity that chooses receiving over giving.
* https://www.sciencenews.org/article/supermassive-black-hole-gets-kicked-galactic-curb?tgt=more
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