Have astronomers found a runaway black hole?

 A runaway black hole weighing 20 million Suns is tearing through space at 3.6 million mph—fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes.

An illustration of a supermassive black hole speeding through space, leaving a trail of newly formed stars.

This spectacular object was initially dismissed as a simple camera glitch. In 2023, astronomers analyzing archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope noticed a strange, perfectly straight streak of light. Further investigation revealed it was something unprecedented: a supermassive black hole hurtling through intergalactic space, leaving a 200,000-light-year-long trail of newly born stars in its wake.

Supermassive black holes typically anchor the centers of galaxies. However, when galaxies collide and merge, their central black holes can drift together to form a binary pair. If a third galaxy joins the cosmic pileup, the gravitational dynamics become chaotic and highly unstable. This complex interaction can act like a gravitational slingshot, forcefully ejecting one of the black holes out of the host galaxy entirely.

This specific black hole was discovered by a Yale University team. Because black holes do not emit light, the runaway object is invisible. However, as it plows through the thin gas surrounding its former galaxy, its immense gravity creates a shockwave. This compresses the gas, triggering a massive burst of star formation behind it. The result is a narrow, brilliant contrail of young, hot stars that stretches out into the darkness. The trail points directly back to the center of the original galaxy, providing a clear map of its ejection path.

The linear streak captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, tracing the path of the runaway supermassive black hole.

Smaller, stellar-mass black holes can also go rogue. When a massive star goes supernova, an asymmetrical explosion can give the newly formed black hole a powerful "kick," sending it wandering alone through the Milky Way. In 2022, astronomers confirmed the discovery of an isolated, stellar-mass runaway black hole. It was detected because its intense gravity temporarily magnified the light of a distant background star, a phenomenon known as gravitational microlensing.

While the concept of wandering black holes might sound alarming, space is staggeringly vast. These rogue objects pose zero threat to the solar system and instead serve as remarkable evidence of the extreme forces at work in the universe.

Could we ever create a black hole on Earth?

 Short answer is - Yes. Scientist at CERN tried to create a micro black hole at large hadron collider (LHC),but it is too unstable that it could vanish near than 10^-25 second. As the black hole is too small,it can vaporize too fast due to Hawking radiation.

Our current technology is unable to produce such a micro black hole at laboratory. Though that black hole can't harm to earth. Scientist can simulate that black hole but to create such needs massive amount of energies which can be produced by collision of energetic particles at near speed of light at LHC.

Detection of mini black holes at the LHC.

Could black holes be shortcuts through space and time?

 Yes,it is theoretically possible but not in a practical way. According to GR, space and time are not two mutually independent dimensions but connected through space-time fabric.When an object of masses are there,it create space time curvature on that fabric. Since black hole have very high density ,so it creates an enormous amount of curvature.

Now, think space time fabric as a thin piece of paper,where by folding it in a way that two distant points are closed by a tiny tunnel (as here the width of the paper). This is possible also in a real case of space time geometry.And that tiny tunnel are shortcuts through space-time between two locations of the universe.

That tunnel(also known as worm hole) connects two different locations where one side is a black hole and opposite site there is a white hole.

Though this idea is highly speculative and it is believed that wormholes are highly unstable. It would be saying too much speculation that we could do time travel by that wormhole.

The deepest problem is that we have zero observational evidence that wormholes exist at all. They are valid solutions to Einstein's field equations, but mathematical possibility doesn't guarantee physical reality.

What were the different types of plagues in the Black Death?

 

What were the different types of plagues in the Black Death?

What were the different types of plagues in the Black Death?

The plague, Black Death, God’s Revenge, or whatever name you choose was the great killer of the Middle Ages. The number of deaths is unknown, only estimated, and that estimation is three million. Compared to Hitler’s Holocaust and its 6 million murdered Jews, three sounds negligible. However, the population was much lower in medieval times and 3 million was a devastating blow to society.

Bubonic was transmitted primarily through fleas. It caused swellings in the lymph glands; the neck, underarms, and groin areas were the most common areas. Opening the buboes to drain was not a common treatment; prayer was. The few who survived had a natural immunity.

Pneumonic wasn’t a silent killer. One of its symptoms was a cough. I believe the custom of saying “Bless you.”, “God bless you” in the appropriate language began then and is still used today without people knowing the history behind it. A Pope (Gregory?) suggested that the blessing be used by the faithful in the hopes they would then be protected from the illness. The droplets sprayed

carried the seeds of death to the unsuspecting. That’s why people are taught to cover the cough or sneeze in their hand, a kleenex, a handkerchief if anyone still carries them. I still have my Mom’s given her by a grateful postal patron. They have fragile lace tatted around the edges. In medieval times people used the long sleeves on their outfits, on the tablecloth, the long hoods worn by the men

—- anything that had handy — or they sprayed the neighborhood.

Septicemic is the most horrific. It involves a brain-boiling fever, abdominal pain,

and leakage of blood from the nose, mouth, or rectum.

This disease is still active in parts of the world — including my New Mexico.

Pinterest pictures

How big is the black caiman?

 A fully grown Black Caiman is a big reptile, it is know to challenge even the mighty Green Anaconda another apex predator of the Amazon basin and swamp.

The Largest scientifically measured Black Caimans are said to be 17 feet or more and males this size weighed over 1,100 pounds perhaps 1,500 pounds but weights are rarely reported or documented.

The skull alone of a very large specimen weighs several pounds. The head alone is nearly 10 percent of body mass. The huge tail accounts for nearly 40 percent of total body mass.

Black Day in Kashmir : How PoK was lost due to treachery of Muslim soldiers of Kashmir Army

The government has declared the 22nd of October this year to be the black day in the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir. This is the day Pakistan supported tribal jihadis and attacked the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from the west.

They plundered, raped, and murdered all through their victorious march until the very edges of capital Srinagar. Some gallant actions by soldiers under Chief of Military Staff, Brigadier Rajender Singh Jamwal delayed the jihadi raiders by two crucial days. The Brigadier attained veergati and was the first recipient of Maha Vir Chakra for being the savior of Kashmir.

It is a well-known story after that. Most of us are familiar with the story of how Kashmir acceded to Bharat, how Biju Patnaik landed in Srinagar airport, Bharatiya Army was airlifted and the war started. The Pakistani army and its supporters were stopped and pushed back to some extent. Finally, a ceasefire was agreed upon and the dispute was sent to the United Nations. That was a controversial decision. However, that is outside the scope of this article.

How Muslim soldiers betrayed Kashmir

How did a bunch of untrained tribesmen defeat the forces of Kashmir state? After all, howsoever small the forces, Kashmir did have a trained army and could have easily defeated the tribesmen. The answer lies in the betrayal by almost all the Muslim soldiers in the Maharaja’s army. This chapter of Bharatiya history has been tactfully hidden from public scrutiny, however, books on the subject frankly mention this great betrayal.

Duplicity at Tharochi Fort

On the night of 15/16 October 1947, a large party of raiders laid siege to Tharochi Fort where two companies of 2 JAK Battalion, one Gorkha and one Muslim had taken refuge. Brigadier Chhattar Singh in command of the Mirpur Brigade ordered his Brigade Major (BM), Major Nasarullah Khan to take two platoons of 3 JAK Battalion to deliver supplies and ammunition to the garrison in the Fort.

On the way, he also assumed command of two companies sent earlier to relieve the besieged garrison. He deployed the Muslim Company on perimeter defense duty outside the Fort and told the Gorkhas to rest. Nasarullah Khan then called a meeting of all Muslim officers and JCOs and hatched a plan to eliminate the non-Muslim elements. During the night, the Muslim Company mercilessly butchered the sleeping Gorkhas! The Gorkha Commander, Captain Prem Singh was strangled to death by Muslim brother officers of his own battalion. Two Gorkha JCOs and 30 Other Ranks (OR) managed to escape the massacre.

Major Nasarullah Khan then led the Muslim troops inside the Tharochhi Fort where the garrison, was unaware of the developments of the night before and received the relieving column with joy. And at night, the unsuspecting Gorkhas were all murdered in a repeat performance. Their commander, Captain Raghubir Singh Thapa was tortured to death!

Betrayal in Gilgit

Brigadier Ghansara Singh was appointed the governor of the Gilgit region by the Maharaja in August of 1947. He was to defend the region with help of Gilgit Scouts, the armed militia which owed its allegiance to Maharaja. Most of the soldiers in this body were recruited from Hunza and Nagar principalities.

Ghansara Singh also had under him soldiers of 6 J&K Infantry, with its Battalion headquarters at Bunji, 54 kilometers from Gilgit, on the road to Srinagar. The battalion had Sikhs and Muslims in equal proportion. Most of the Muslims in the battalion were from Poonch. Sensing trouble, Ghansara Singh called for help from Srinagar, but a Muslim officer who manned the telegraph office at Gilgit did not forward the messages!

On the night of 31 Oct- 01 Nov 1947 British Officers stationed in Gilgit, under the employment of Maharaja, and Muslim soldiers and officers of Gilgit Scouts treacherously captured Ghansara Singh. The 35 Sikhs of the 6 J&K Infantry at Janglot were attacked by Muslim soldiers of their own unit! Only 1 survived the massacre by jumping into the icy cold Indus river.

The other Sikh troops at Bunji got information of the massacre and tried to slip away, but most were ruthlessly hunted and killed by Gilgit Scouts and their own brothers-in-arms. The commander at Bunji, Lt Col Abdul Majid Khan, however, was a rare Muslim officer who remained loyal to Maharaja and was put under arrest. On 03 Nov 1947, Maj Brown of Gilgit Scouts hoisted the Pakistani Flag in the Scout Lines and declared for Pakistan.

Treachery in Skardu

With the arrest of Lt Col Abdul Majid Khan and the betrayal at Gilgit, the command of 6 J&K Infantry now devolved on Major Sher Jung Thapa. Skardu was east of Gilgit and an important town. 6 J&K infantry, was spread out thinly
in penny packets from Leh to Bunji. Capt Ganga Singh commanded two platoons at Kargil, which entirely comprised of Sikhs. Skardu itself was held by two platoons under Capt Nek Alam with entirely Muslim soldiers. Thapa was at Leh when Gilgit fell and he was ordered to March to Skardu with whatever troops available. He arrived there on 3rd December and immediately noticed the hostile environment. The Muslim soldiers of the battalion were being incited to rebel and Gilgit Scouts and raiders were moving towards Skardu. By mid-February, Skardu received some small reinforcements from Srinagar.

Thapa had 130 non-Muslim and 31 Muslim troops in Skardu now. He had deployed Nek Alam and his Muslim platoon 32 km towards west, on the road from Gilgit, which followed the river. Another platoon of Sikhs was positioned on the other bank of the river. This was at a place called Tsari

By the start of February, tribesmen and the traitors from 6 J&K Infantry had completed all the plans to capture Skardu. On the 9th of February, the enemies attacked. Nek Alam and his soldiers immediately changed sides. Krishna Singh and his small platoon were routed and the survivors murdered in cold blood.

They then moved towards Skardu, while Thapa was unaware of the disaster and treachery at Tsari. The first attack by raiders on 11th February was beaten back while some Muslims of Thapa’s garrison deserted. Skardu also received some more reinforcements and now had 285 soldiers. Thapa also provided shelter to all the non-Muslims of the town, which numbered around 229.

Skardu was besieged by well-armed raiders and Muslim troops, while Thapa defended it gallantly till August 14. They had fought without adequate ammunition, food, or even water. Finally, Skardu capitulated. All the surviving non-Muslims were murdered, but their women abducted, raped, and sold into brothels. Major Thapa and his orderly were the only ones kept alive. He was returned to Bharat some days after the war and was awarded Mahavir Chakra.

Conclusion

The story of how Muslim soldiers in Maharaja’s army, repeatedly and at multiple places, stabbed their Gorkha, Sikh, and Dogra brothers-in-arms in the back is the hidden truth of Bharat’s history. This history must be remembered to understand the Kashmir dispute in totality. Many instances in history can be recounted where traitors combined with invaders to inflict a defeat on us.

It is important that we learn from the mistakes we historically made so that our future could be secured. In 1941, the Hindu population in the area under the current occupation of Pakistan was more than 1 lakh. It was completely wiped out in massacres, especially in Rajauri, Poonch, and Mirpur. Thousands of Hindu civilians were killed and the women sold in brothels of Pakistan. Unfortunately, we are still losing the demographic battle in Bharat. Its effects are already being seen in Bengal to Kerala and Kairana.

How do black holes acquire their spin, and what leads them to reach near their maximum spin limits?

 Well, black holes acquired their spin the same way you did!

If you're thinking, "What! I'm not spinning. I'm firmly seated (or lying)," well, think again.

Although you may be static, the planet you're on is spinning. And rapidly, too. It's spinning around itself.

And it's taking you for the ride.

It gets more interesting the more you think about it. Our Sun is spinning too. So is the moon, other planets, comets, asteroids, and pretty much everything else in space.

But why?

We Live in a Merry Go 'Round Universe

Image Credits: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-nustar-helps-solve-riddle-of-black-hole-spin/

It's not hard to see why, you know.

Think of any object in space – an asteroid, planet, star, or whatever you can imagine.

In this case, let's begin with a star.

Let's say, for our argument's sake, that it's currently still and not moving in any way. It doesn't even have a spin of its own.

How long do you figure it can keep up its act?

Sooner or later, something will hit it. It could be something big, like another star, or something small like a comet.

In fact, everything in space is constantly bombarded with stuff. It could be small stuff like comets and rocks. Or it could be big stuff, like a planet-sized body or another star.

Chances are those objects won't hit our star head-on or perpendicular to its surface. The overwhelming majority of them will hit our star at an angle.

They might even trace a hyperbolic path as they collide into our object.

It's like someone accidentally hitting you in the right shoulder as they pass you by. Even without your volition, your body turns in the direction of "their path" due to the sheer force of the impact. In other words, you "spin."

If you were in space, there would be nothing you could do to stop this spin. Fortunately, gravity binds you to Earth, and the friction between your feet and the ground helps you transfer that spin (angular momentum) to Earth.

Our star isn't so fortunate. It gains the spin and keeps it, until something else hits its left shoulder…err…I mean, in the other direction, either slowing it down or making it spin the other way.

Every small thing – no matter how infinitesimally small it is – hitting a star ends up affecting its spin, even if it's by an immeasurable amount, because its energy must be conserved.

This applies to every object in space.

So, nothing in space is ever without spin.

Their spin could be very, very small. But it's always there. Although theoretically it's possible to have an object in space with no spin, it's practically (probabilistically) impossible to have one.

In fact, most stars develop their spin when they're born because the collapsing matter that created them fell together in complex, turbulent, and spiral paths.

So, when these stars eventually die and create black holes, the latter merely retain the spin they inherited from their parent stars.

Now, since they're much smaller in size due to extreme compression, their spin is much, much faster than that of their stars.

I'm sure you've come across the analogy of figure skaters spinning faster when they draw their hands in. So, I won't go into it any further.

To put it simply, black holes spin because everything in the universe is always spinning, too!

So, the next time you're overwhelmed by life and go, "My head is spinning," don't worry. It's the universe and everything in it that's gone bonkers and spinning! Not just you.

How are black holes formed?

 🌟 1. A Massive Star is Born

Every black hole begins its life as a massive star: at least 8 to 20 times the mass of our Sun. These giants burn bright and fast, fusing hydrogen into helium, then heavier elements, all the way to iron.

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💥 2. Iron: The Unforgiving Core

When the core becomes mostly iron, the star hits a dead end. Why? Because fusing iron doesn't release energy, it consumes it. So the internal pressure that held the star up against gravity collapses: just like a royal guard fainting after standing too long.

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💣 3. The Supernova Explosion

With no fusion to fight gravity, the core collapses inwards within seconds, while the outer layers explode outward in a cataclysmic supernova, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe.

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⚫ 4. The Core's Fate — Neutron Star or Black Hole?
What remains after the explosion is a dense core. Now two things can happen:

* If the core's mass is below ~2.5 times the Sun's mass → it becomes a neutron star.

* If it’s above that limit → gravity wins, and the core collapses into a black hole, crushing matter into a point of infinite density called a singularity.

Gravity becomes so strong that not even light can escape. That’s when the star officially becomes a black hole.

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Bonus: Other Ways to Form Black Holes

• Collisions of neutron stars (like smashing two wrecking balls made of atomic nuclei).

• Primordial black holes (hypothetical and formed just after the Big Bang).
• Galactic mergers and accretion, where black holes grow bigger by swallowing mass and merging with others.

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Summary in One Line:

A black hole is born when a massive star dies, its core collapses under gravity, and space itself bows so deeply that even light cannot escape.

What happens when two black holes collide?

 

As a result of their collision, enormous amount of energy releases. The two black holes may merge into a larger one resulting emission of gravitational wave. Let's see an example:

First detect black hole merger is GW150914.Two black holes with masses 36 and 29 solar masses collided.The final black hole had a mass of ~62 solar masses.The missing 3 solar masses (about 5.4×10^47 joules) were radiated away as gravitational waves.This is more energy than all the stars in the observable universe emit as light in a brief moment.

A single supernova releases about 10^44 joules.A gamma-ray burst releases about 10^46 joules.A black hole merger like GW150914 released 10^47 joules—the largest energy release ever observed.

If a black hole loses enough energy, does it become another cosmic object?

 

${10}^{67}$.

That's how long you'll have to wait and find out.

One hundred trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years. Or,

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

You see, that's how long it takes for a black hole the size of our sun to evaporate.

Hawking radiation, that's the ticket.

The black hole slowly leaks particles, losing mass, until poof, it's gone.

What happens next?

Does it turn into a star? A nebula? A cosmic quesadilla?"

Well, not exactly.

The thing about black holes is they're not like other cosmic objects. They're not made of stuff, per se.

They're more like...holes in the fabric of spacetime.

But, and this is where it gets interesting, as the black hole evaporates, it might leave something behind.

Not a star or a gas cloud, but a concentrated nugget of pure information. This is a mind-bender, even for physicists.

Some think this information could be the key to understanding the universe's deepest secrets, while others think it might just disappear into the ether.

There's a theory floating around about a black hole remnant. Something left behind when a black hole evaporates.

Not a star, not a cloud, but a nugget of pure information. This nugget, the theory goes, might be the key to unlocking some of the universe's most tightly held secrets.

It's a long shot, a cosmic gamble, but that's the kind of stuff that keeps us stargazers up at night.

It's the mystery, the unknown, the sheer audacity of the universe that keeps us reaching for the stars, even when they're a hundred trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years away.

Will the Earth ever fall into a black hole? Black holes are said to "swallow" planets, making them dead. Can the Earth ever get into one?

 There is nothing impossible in this universe.

But every event is associated with a probability factor. And the probability of such an event happening (where Earth falls into a blackhole) is close to zero.

Also its misleading to state that Blackholes eat up everything. Because it gives an impression that Blackholes actively chases down every star and every planet to eat them out like a shark in the ocean, but that’s not correct.

It just has an immensly high gravitational pull, which decreases exponentially with distance.

A blackhole can be compared to a hole in an unimaginably vast golf course, where balls (planets or stars) will only fall into the hole if they approach dangerously close to the hole.

And if they do, there is nothing that can stop them from falling. The only catch is, this hole is not stationary (like in actual Golf course) and moves through space & time.

So, yes its not impossible for Earth to fall into a blackhole, but for that to happen, our solar system has to be in direct line of a moving blackhole and space is just toooo big (even for our Solar System) for that to happen.

Hence, not zero but almost zero probability.