Now I have to accelerate my reading of Dr. Plait’s latest book Death from the Skies after learning about the confirmed black hole at the center of our galaxy. Chapter five explains them and what would happen (based upon what scientists know so far) should one of these come close enough to affect our solar system.
I’m not worried. If you read the BBC link, it’s around 27,000 light years from here. Besides, it makes sense that a black hole is there. Astronomers confirmed one at the center of another galaxy years ago and due to their intense gravity (thanks to all that mass concentrated into such a small sphere), I’d imagine they’re better “anchors” for galaxies like our Milky Way to hold its shape. Or maybe they’re more “efficient” than a red supergiant at the center: if our sun were a black hole, it would only be 3.6 miles in diameter based upon its current mass. Just like how a 200GB hard drive could store my entire CD collection of 2300 discs for fraction of space in my house: a 2.5″ portable drive versus three shelves over six-feet high and four-feet wide. Hmm. I wonder how long it will take the wounded, greedy Big Four labels of the Music Industry to stick my CD-black hole analogy to the iPod?
I also wonder about other well-loved sci-fi franchises integrating this fact into their backgrounds. For example, the Federation’s “space” in Star Trek is roughly 10,000 light years from end to end in the 24th century. Are the worlds closer to the galactic core even remotely affected? More worrisome to me is…why did I even know such a useless piece of trivia? It’s only a TV show! Yet, sometimes combining fiction with science can provide comfort and comprehension for others when explaining such an awesome and terrifying phenomenon; for a handful of celebrities it’s called a religion.