Why do we have so much information on black holes while only looking at them from thousands of miles away.?
922178
Not really, and actually the nearest black hole is TRILLIONS of miles away - thankfully. So there's no immediate danger of the earth or anything getting sucked into one.\n\nWe know what we know because largely of the math involved. This is the case for alot of astronomy. Because we understand math reasonably well scientists can make predictions and we can create computer simulations (something like SimCity or Civilization) only really more about stars and less about cities. So when they run these simulations sometimes if they setup the the simulated stars very very big, when they die they create these weird situations we call black holes. \n\nOne of these simulations predicted that the center of every galaxy should have a black hole. This is a great example where the scientists involved predicted that SO much energy would have to be involved that every time this black hole ate a very large bunch of other stars, a gigantic stream of radiation should shoot out like a searchlight from the top and bottom of the black hole because so much stuff was trying to get into the black hole that it couldn't all fit at one time - so all the stuff (really before it fell in to the black hole) would get really really hot energetic and create these mega jets of radiation.\n\nWell the scientist was promptly ridiculed for a couple of years, Everyone including some very prominent scientists basically said nope - that doesn't happen. And then a couple of years ago, the Hubble Space started looking and what do you know.\n\nhttp://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2000/20\n\nRadiation streams coming out of almost every galaxy we look at. \n\nAstronomy right now is doing ALOT of research and prediction and simlulations and then looking up into space to see if your predictions are accurate. \n\nSometimes, you have mysteries, like Gamma Ray Bursts these bursts occur across the universe, galaxies away and millions of light years from Earth (quadrillions of miles away) (which are also caused by stellar events) but we didn't know about how they were caused until just a few years ago. \n\nWe put satelites up to look for nuclear blasts from the soviet union (back in the day) and when we turned the machine on - we started getting hits almost right away , but not from russia from all across the universe and nobody could figure out how come that much energy could be created and find it's way to the earth. \n\nThat was when scientists put these two stories together and realized that you really couldn't create that much energy going in ALL directions at once but MAYBE it could be a stream of directed high energy particles pointed in the direction of the earth for just a few seconds, That was when scientists really confirmed that these things were real and fairly common and were the direct evidence needed to support the small group of scientists suggesting Mega Black holes and particle streams which were light years in length.
557878
True, u r right in this observation. Our universe is under much more scrutiny because we can see and observe a lot many things, so if we feel its complex is very obvious
63870
Not much is known about black holes. What is known is only an estimate of how it might work.
157004
there are many things beyond our simple human capabilities and understanding. Many things we just don't need to know all the infinite details of ....\n\nand best left to our wonder and awe of.
326080
we have a hubble telescope. its actually a giant satellite that orbits in space. takes pictures. and sends them to computers on earth! neato!\n\nbut an intersting thing is, the pictures we get of other galaxies are what they looked like millions of years ago! thats because it takes millions of years for light to travel from THAT galaxy to THIS galaxy. :)
498872
I think what you need to do is start looking at the picture in a different way.  \n\nYou're looking at the things that are THERE.  \n\nStart looking for what ISN'T THERE.  \n\nIt may be technically accurate to say that you can't see a black hole, because of the fact that our eyes register things that have light reflected off of them.  However, this doesn't change the fact that we can take a picture that displays the black hole, if only because of its nothingness.
660648
A Black hole is formed when a giant star (one thats many many times bigger than our average sized sun) burns up its gaseous energy sources(hydrogen) such that it can no longer sustain the nuclear reactions on its surface. As a result all the massive amount of matter it holds ,pulled by massive gravity collapses towards the center and results in what is called a supernova explosion. However the dense core of the star remains holding alot of matter, say a few billions the time of the mass of the sun but only stretching to a very tiny fraction of the star's original size. This core has so much gravity acting towards the center such that ,nothing including light can escape from it. THIS IS CALLED A BLACK HOLE!\n\nAs of their relevance to US!!! \nWe know black holes exist from the Quasar & Pulsar phenomenon mainly detected by radio telescopes, First, in the distant future where space travel will take us into very deep space, say towards the center of our Galaxy, space travellers must be able to avoid the Event horizon, otherwise they will be sacked ino it.\n\nSecondly, massive gravity seems to bend light that travels near it thus distorting the apparent location of objects whose light has to pass near black holes to reach us. This will have to be considered by astronomers observing distant stellar bodies\n\nLastly, its thought that at the center of our Galaxy-the milky way,there is a giant Black hole and its gravitational pull makes the star systems around it(eg the solar system) to revolve around it in a spiral manner because systems closer to the center rotate faster than the ones further out. So I guess, this particular blackhole is of the same relevance to the solar system as the sun is to the earth!::::::Thankyou
897583
Quasars are thought to be super massive black holes inside very distant galaxies which radiate very large amounts of energy as matter falls into them.
51985
We can view quite a distance away (measured in light years) from our own solar system using the latest generation of telescopes and probes but we have not even yet begun to exit from our own solar system. Even the distance needed to escape our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is beyond our capability as of yet. We do not even know most of the fundamental questions pertaining the formation and existance of the galaxy such as dark matter. Our knowledge of the outer solar system stems from mostly interpretations of photos sent back by probes such as Voyager and the Hubble Telescope as well as the never generation of scanning tools but that is all for now. Other phenomenons we can speculate and conjecture using maths such as the existance of black holes. Maybe one day we may venture farther away but with problems even for a manned flight reaching Mars, that time will be long away indeed and it may never be possible to ever reach the outer limit of what we know as space for it is light years away and even now conjecture is whether there really is an outer limit to our universe as it is still expanding. As for other galaxies there are many abound ours is only one of millions, there are examples like the Crab Nebula etc.
41177
I did a Yahoo Search for most distant galaxy.\n\nThe "farthest" galaxies seen in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are about 13 billion years ago in our past.  Given that the light from these galaxies travels at the speed of, well, light, they are 13 billion light years away.  Or, in miles, that is about 76,424,219,300,000,000,000,000 miles away or 76 sextillion miles away.\n\nActually, I take that back.  The actual galaxies are probably even farther away than this.  What we are seeing is where they were 13 billion years ago.  Given that they are moving away from us, they are 13 billion years away plus the distance they travelled away from since that light was emitted 13 billion years ago.\n\nScientists are very interested in these most distant galaxies because the provide information about the evolution of the universe from the "Big Bang" event to now.\n\nThe projects surrounding these distant galaxies are referred to as Deep Space projects.
1160171
its a MATHIMATICAL prediction that warmholes (or "shortcuts" in spacetime... so you fly into black hole and boom you're in another part of the universe or another universe all together) exists\n\nUnfortunatly this prediction bares no physical merrit as neither the black hole is capable of "letting things fall through" nor is a "whitehole" capable of existing for more then one instance (aside the fact that it cannot form, period)\n\nThe mathematical model is beautiful though, if you know much math I suggest you check it out.!
1151473
No, because a black hole is a collapsed star, and the closest star to us, besides the sun, is thousands of light years away. They also suck in EVERYTHING including light and destroys it.
408054
This is not a cheap answer because this is a fact: No one knows yet where black holes lead to. Science has not yet found an answer to your question. \n\nIf you want more info on black holes, visit www.nasa.gov
919010
Yes, you are completely right.  This is why astronomy is so important.  By looking at galaxies that are a billion light years away, we are seeing what those galaxies looked like a billion years ago.  Since we can see objects up to 13.7 billion light years away (corresponding to the age of the universe), we can see objects like galaxies as they appeared at a range of times, letting us develop more thorough hypotheses about how the universe itself has evolved, and what might lie in our galaxy's future.
1068112
We just don't know yet cause that Hubble Telescope is only strong enough to see a certain distance. \n\nScientifically we just don't know and I am not at liberty to guess....Neither are you. hehe
359340
definitely, I mean so many people are so wrapped up in our lives that although we know there's outer space - we never think about it. It would be gr8 to know there are other things going on than what we can just see. Aliens (cos that's what they'll be even if they have two feet and two pairs of eyes etc) mark a whole new "time" for us - the potential to discover new things there may be things that could help us have a better quality of life that others have discovered that we haven't, to udnerstand more of what is going on around us. We think that knowing my stuff works is not important, but it definitly is... too many people live in ignorance and take things for granted.
280455
It is an interesting idea, but for the moment, only an idea. The cosmology behind black holes is pretty sound, and they have been observed now, such as in Cygnus x-1.