Researchers find 'structure' in black hole accretion disk

reply to post by merkins

Some people might also be surprised by the fact that some black holes have low density...

How did you determine that?

Humans have known about black holes for less than 100 years. Its pretty arrogant to assume we understand how they work or discount another Civ has not figured out multiple ways to use there power.

Originally posted by merkins
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

I ws wondering who'd mention them first. A couple of years back I read a great P F Hamilton series where dyson spheres pay a large part.

I've wondered for many years whether the universe's missing matter/mass is simply hiding behind such structures, even on scales larger than galaxies. Perhaps the great voids between the galactic filament structure of the universe are not voids at all but instead dyson structures designed not only to make efficient use of energy for the long long future, but also to hide/separate/quarantine us from them.

Was just joking really about the dyson's sphere...simply because the construction would require..just unimaginable amounts of time, resources, and skill..not to mention nearly godlike technological progression..and in the end, any race able to create such a structure..well, chances are they are so far advanced that they probably don't even need a place to inhabit..just live as pure energy or something.

Just my thoughts on it..who knows..space may be a lot more steampunk than I suspect and there may indeed be races flying around with giant spaceships, dyson's spheres, etc...
My Sci-Fantasy mind wants to think that way..my Sci-Fi mind notes how unlikely and impractical that is.

reply to post by SaturnFX


Plus, the point of a Dyson Sphere built around a star is that it would capture all of the energy being radiated by that star -- which is a hell of a lot of energy.

I suppose a race could feasibly build a shell around a back hole (outside of the event horizon, almost certainly), but then I'm not sure if that would technically be a Dyson Sphere -- at least not in the strict sense of the term, since it would not be capturing the radiated energy of a star.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Plus, the point of a Dyson Sphere built around a star is that it would capture all of the energy being radiated by that star -- which is a hell of a lot of energy.

I suppose a race could feasibly build a shell around a back hole (outside of the event horizon, almost certainly), but then I'm not sure if that would technically be a Dyson Sphere -- at least not in the strict sense of the term, since it would not be capturing the radiated energy of a star.

edit on 3/3/2013 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

Well, if someone built a full dyson's sphere around a black hole..or rather...how would you know it is a black hole if it is being covered by a sphere? If it was just a star inside, it would appear from the outside to be a black bit in space radiating energy...and maybe some venting of gases and such..

hmm..wouldn't it be a hoot to find out there are no such things as black holes..rather, all the discovered black holes are simply dyson sphere's. ..could explain why we haven't found as many black holes as we suspected we would (and answer some big questions in the meantime)

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I think it would be safe to say that it is an incredibly hostile place. Not somewhere the standard spacefaring civilization would want to hang around.

Originally posted by Bilky
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

I think it would be safe to say that it is an incredibly hostile place. Not somewhere the standard spacefaring civilization would want to hang around.

You're right, because the accretion disk is usually rotating around the black hole very fast, creating a vast amount of friction as all of that matter interacts with each other...

...Then again, perhaps an alien race could harness that rotation and convert it to energy?

I'm not saying that's what this is (not at all). The structure that this accretion disk exhibits is almost surely natural. Natural structures can be emergent from smaller-scale chaotic forces.

HOWEVER, it may not be outside the realm of possibility for an advanced civilization to harness the gravitational power of a black hole for their own use.

There are larger Star than shown here, but they are so large, and the gravity so great, the photons can not escape.

Then again this is much like Black hole, no one has ever seen one, only on paper.


That last star was 2,800,000,000 Kilometers across, the radius or distance, of the Sun from Pluto, is 5,913,520,000 kilometers apart.

Like I said they say there are even larger Stars, much larger.

Originally posted by SaturnFX
hmm..wouldn't it be a hoot to find out there are no such things as black holes..rather, all the discovered black holes are simply dyson sphere's. ..could explain why we haven't found as many black holes as we suspected we would

(and answer some big questions in the meantime)

Dyson spheres radiate like mad in IR. It's a dead giveaway.

Originally posted by Bedlam

Originally posted by SaturnFX
hmm..wouldn't it be a hoot to find out there are no such things as black holes..rather, all the discovered black holes are simply dyson sphere's. ..could explain why we haven't found as many black holes as we suspected we would

(and answer some big questions in the meantime)

Dyson spheres radiate like mad in IR. It's a dead giveaway.

Don't you think they would fix up all the slums, before they started building, Dyson Spheres.
If they were that advanced,I would doubt they would even have a need for such a thing as a Dyson Sphere.

reply to post by OOOOOO


They're also dangerous. If one springs a leak, all the air comes out. And they're unstable - you have to constantly re-center the sphere on the sun. If your civilization falls, you'll eventually smack the star.