HUMOROUS ITEMS

Added in June of 2008.

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In the May 24, 2008, issue of Science News is an article with the title Supermassive black hole says sayonara to its galaxy.   Those of you familiar with this website will enjoy laughing at the proposed reasons for the supposed phenomenon.   Ron Cowen is the author, however he cannot be blamed for the ludicrous nature of the article.

Apparently, Stefanie Komossa and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, found evidence that a black hole is vacating its central position in its galaxy.   The explanation follows.

1.   Two galaxies were colliding, each with a central black hole.

2.   The two black holes merged.

3.   This merging caused the unleashing of an enormous burst of gravitational radiation.

4.   The proposed ripples in space-time, predicted by Eistein's theory, travel at the speed of light.

5.   Most of this gravitational radiation is emitted in one direction, pushing the merged black hole system in the opposite direction like the kick when one shoots a shotgun.

6.   The kick makes the supermassive black hole exit its galaxy.

There was at least one skeptic, Cole Miller of the University of Maryland in College Park.   However, his skepticism was centered on the idea that the black hole might not really be exiting its galaxy - not the strange reasoning listed in six steps above.
 

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