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Astronomers Identify a New Mid-size Black Hole

Nearly all black holes come in one of two sizes: stellar mass black holes that weigh up to a few dozen times the mass of our sun or supermassive black holes ranging from a million to several billion times the sun’s mass. Astronomers believe that medium-sized black holes between these two extremes exist, but evidence has been hard to come by, with roughly a half-dozen candidates described so far. A team led by astronomers at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has found evidence for a new intermediate-mass black hole about 5,000 times the mass of the sun. The discovery adds one more candidate to the list of potential medium-sized black holes, while strengthening the case that these objects do exist. The team reported its findings in the September 21, 2015 online edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters. This image, taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, shows the central region of galaxy NGC1313. This galaxy is home to the ultraluminous X-ray source NCG1313X-1, which astronomers have now determined to be an intermediate-mass black hole candidate. NGC1313 is 50,000 light-years across and lies about 14 million light-years from the Milky Way in the southern constellation Reticulum. Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/astronomers-identify-a-new-m... Image credit: European Southern Observatory #nasagoddard #blackhole #space

that one sin.

you know that sin?

You know. That one sin.

The one that you never tell anybody. The one that you’re afraid to tell people, afraid of their judgement, because obviously if they knew they would condemn you. The one that you’ve unwillingly hoarded to yourself, played close to your chest, not letting anyone have so much as a peek. That sin, the one that not even your parents or your best friends or anybody else knows about.

That. One. Sin.

I don’t know when it started. Maybe you were younger, or maybe you were older. Maybe you didn’t know it was wrong, at first, or maybe you knew it was wrong but you did it anyways. Maybe you were pressured into it, felt like you didn’t have a choice. Maybe you were indulging yourself with something that you’d always wanted to try but never had the opportunity to.

And now you look back, and you feel sick. You wish it had never happened in the first place. You wish that you hadn’t been so stupid. You wish that you had listened to whoever had warned you away from it. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, eat this much of you up—it wasn’t supposed to go any further than that first try.

It hurts. You feel dirty. You wonder how God could ever love someone as horrible as you. As dirty as you. As broken as you.

Let me tell you something:

That’s a lie.

Because, secret sin or not, if you have Jesus then you are God’s child.

You have been made clean, whole.

Jesus’ blood is bigger than your sin.

Jesus paid it all.

God loves to forgive.

God loves to heal.

God loves to love.

Don’t hide from him. Run to him. Let him welcome you back.

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smartler

9 years ago

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smartler

9 years ago

Shine bright like a blood strain

Net-The-Average-Boy (via not-the-average-boy)

Net the average boy?

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smartler

9 years ago

What Are the Bright Spots on Ceres?

Dwarf planet Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Now, Ceres has revealed some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from our Dawn spacecraft.

Two studies have been looking into the mystery behind these bright areas. One study identifies this bright material as a kind of salt, while the other study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays.

Study authors write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt.

Researchers, using images from Dawn’s framing camera, suggest that these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past. Impacts from asteroids would have unearthed the mixture of ice and salt.

An image of Occator Crater (below) shows the brightest material on Ceres. Occator itself is 60 miles in diameter, and its central pit, covered by this bright material, measures about 6 miles wide. With its sharp rim and walls, it appears to be among the youngest features on the dwarf planet.

In the second nature study, members of the Dawn science team examined the composition of Ceres and found evidence for ammonia-rich clays. Why is this important?

Well, ammonia ice by itself would evaporate on Ceres today, because it is too warm. However, ammonia molecules could be stable if present in combination with other minerals. This raises the possibility that Ceres did not originate in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where it currently resides. But instead, might have formed in the outer solar system! Another idea is that Ceres formed close to its present position, incorporating materials that drifted in from the outer solar system, near the orbit of Neptune, where nitrogen ices are thermally stable.

As of this week, our Dawn spacecraft has reached its final orbital altitude at Ceres (about 240 miles from the surface). In mid-December, it will begin taking observations from this orbit, so be sure to check back for details!

ake sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

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smartler

9 years ago