Word: holes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Besides the possible black hole in Cygnus, one appears to be part of another double-star system in the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion). Three more may have been detected, each at the heart of a globular cluster of stars in the halo of the earth's Milky Way galaxy. In the inner regions of these clusters, which contain tens of thousands of individual stars, some of the stars are revolving with wobbly motions, as if disturbed by a center of enormous gravity. Herbert Gursky and Andrea Dupree of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believe that these stars "may well...
Scientists are not the only ones smitten by black-hole fever. The parcels of nothingness are a favorite topic on the lecture circuit. They bring out record crowds for planetarium shows, and they have lately been the theme of a spate of books. In the popular lexicon, the term black hole once suggested only the legendary hellish cell in Calcutta in which British prisoners were held by an 18th century Indian nawab. Now it has become an immediately recognizable catchword for a different kind of darkness. Says one young astrophysicist...
...cultural phenomenon, black holes also appear in slogans on T shirts and bumper stickers (BLACK HOLES ARE OUT OF SIGHT), and are the subject of banter by Johnny Carson and other TV talk show hosts. A gag advertisement in the sci-fi magazine Analog by a company named Nothingness Unlimited promoted "black-hole disposal units," invisible devices (in seven decorator colors) that suck up unlimited waste...
Perhaps the most compelling reason for the widespread interest is that black holes seem to mark the point where astrophysics intersects metaphysics and science finally converges with religion. Indeed, black holes seem to have universal implications, for the gravitational collapse of stars suggests that the universe, too, can begin falling back in on itself. If that happens, its billions of galaxies will eventually crush together and could form a super black hole. And what then? Nothing? Or would a new process of creation somehow begin...
Defining a black hole for a layman taxes the imagination and vocabulary of even the most articulate scientist. The matter that formed the hole has long since disappeared, like Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire cat, leaving behind only the disembodied grin of its gravity. From afar, that gravity has the same effect on objects in space as it did when its matter existed. But closer...