Tag: conservation of angular momentum

Black Hole Eats and Erupts!

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The only reason we can see black holes in the universe is because some of them swallow up gas and dust.  This heats up material that is spinning rapidly around the black hole as it falls in (called an accretion disk), and produces massive jets of material due to conservation of angular momentum that can be seen across the universe.  The energy released in the jets and the energy given off in the accretion disk are proportional to how much gas and dust is being consumed by the black hole.  More matter = more food = more energy released.  But...

Massive Stars Colliding!

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News always reports the records.  The biggest, the loudest, the fastest, the first.  When it comes to Astronomy, there are so many new worlds to explore and so much new science to learn, we end up breaking records often.  Even with Astronomy being the oldest science, the sheer amount of stuff in the universe means there is always something new and surprising to discover. Today’s episode of ‘Biggest, brightest, hottest’ brings us the move massive binary star system ever found, with two huge, hot stars so close together that they are actually touching, merging their atmospheres together. In the Large...