[WMCoolmon]

I'm trying to think up a practical use for this but can't.

Fireworks maybe?

[Bobboau]

famous last words in science

hmmm. uh.. oh

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by karajorma


Absolutely no difference except that it would be darker at night.

Every other effect the moon has on the Earth is a due to gravity. Gravity is a function of mass and the distance from the center of that mass. Since neither of those two have changed you couldn't possibly notice any change unless you went closer to the new centre of mass than the radius of the moon. Only then you would start to notice a difference.

Yup. It's all about F=G(m1*m2)/d^2.

Along these lines, the idea of the gravity of any object, including the Earth, "pulling" something into it is really a misnomer.  Gravity doesn't work that way.  The only way an object can be "sucked into" any celestial body is if their paths of motion intersect.  Provided an object is moving faster than Earth's escape velocity, flying close to Earth will produce nothing more than an unbound orbit, the so-called "slingshot effect" that has been used to allow space probes to reach distant planets in less time.  In the case of a black hole, provided you're outside that event horizon and moving faster than the escape velocity, you can orbit it for eternity.  Heck, the center of our own galaxy is a supermassive black hole, and it's not exactly sucking us all into it, is it?

This "microsingularity" is really cool stuff; it has a ton of potential in the realm of quantum physics. It'll be interesting to hear about what else they find out about it.

[Bobboau]

now I just wish they'd hurry up and try to determine the mass of that damned Higgs Bosen particle, that's when all sorts of neat stuff will start to happen...

[Rictor]

Oh, you havent' heard?
They did, its a little over 2 pounds.

Turns out they just had to put it on a scale, rather that doing all sorts of fancy tests and ****.

[Dark RevenantX]

Black Hole in a Can.

[Bobboau]

you don't know what the Higgs Bosen particle is do you?

[Rictor]

of course I do!
what do you take me for, some sort of common peasant?

Voila!

[Bobboau]

no, not boson, Bosen....
errrehh...god damnit, I've draged this out too long, now it isn't funny... thanks Rictor, you killed my joke... my suble reference to obscure sci-fi ruined, yeah sure other people make some hhgttg reference, everyone laughs, all your base, gold, but I try a little Lexx and flop, no funny here, why do I even bother!

[phreak]

Well ****, I'm on the next rocket off this planet.  Lets hope this doesn't summon the Combine.

[Rictor]

I'm sorry I killed your joke. I'll make it up to you later

[Nico]

Originally posted by karajorma


The moon is in a vacuum. What exactly is it going to suck up? I don't think that solar wind is going to result in any enormous changes in mass on anything other than a geological scale.

What about space dust, asteroids but, more importantly, light?
The physics of a black hole have always been said to be weird. I'm pretty sure it would change a whole lot of things if you switched the moon with a black hole of equivalent mass. Like hell it would nicely orbit around the earth like the moon does. Anyway, I regard this as the same as antimatter in particle accelerators: funny, they do that from time to time, it's probaly very interesting when you're in that field, but it's only just that: a tiny, super-short lived thing which the very existence can be proven by some after-effetcs records. We're far from the doomsday weapon

Btw, I've read Hyperion a few years ago, but I don't remember anything about blackholes, my most vivid memories are of a chick with skinfitting liquid metal armor

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Nico
What about space dust, asteroids but, more importantly, light?

I didn't say that the moon wouldn't get heavier. Just that it's not going to get heavier much quicker than it currently does. As for light well from E=mc^2 it's obvious that you need a hell of a lot of light to make even the smallest amount of mass.

BTW just out of interest what happens if two black holes collide into each other? Do you just get one bigger black hole?

[Ashrak]

Originally posted by karajorma


I didn't say that the moon wouldn't get heavier. Just that it's not going to get heavier much quicker than it currently does. As for light well from E=mc^2 it's obvious that you need a hell of a lot of light to make even the smallest amount of mass.

BTW just out of interest what happens if two black holes collide into each other? Do you just get one bigger black hole?

well im sorry but what about all the other **** in space .... the stellar matter that the sun spits out and oh ... the sun makes a helliva lot of light


2 black holes collide into eachother hmm betcha they will be binary black holes

[karajorma]

That's called solar wind. I already mentioned it. The moon is getting heavier right now. My point is simply that if you replace the moon with a black hole it's going to take a long time for any difference in the rate at which that mass is increasing to have any effect in the slightest.

[Nico]

Originally posted by karajorma
BTW just out of interest what happens if two black holes collide into each other? Do you just get one bigger black hole?

Dunno, but I've read somethng interesting that Einstein, I think, wrote, about blackholes being one of the only instances where 1+1 is inferior to 2 when you add their mass. Makes you wonder if a black hole eating up the moon would actually end up having the same mass, btw.

[Zarax]

Part of the matter would be converted in energy, hence the total is inferior than the sum of the parts in terms of mass.

[Bobboau]

yeah, it would actualy sudgest that it would gain mass slower.

now if you got close to it you'd be prety screwed, it's a little ball of death with a fairly decent force of attraction, think about the sort of navigational hazerd that would be, small black about the size of a pea everything within a million miles is drawen to it, and if you don't pay atention and you fly into it, you and your ship suddenly vanish, if someone was watchng maybe they'd see s small explosion or your ship getting riped apart, but if you were close enough to touch it the gravitational effects would be very intinse.

but we being all these millions of miles away here on earth wouldn't notice a thing.

[Carl]

Originally posted by Ashrak
well im sorry but what about all the other **** in space .... the stellar matter that the sun spits out and oh ... the sun makes a helliva lot of light

I don't think you quite understand how much light we're talking about here. If you took the light coming from one 60 watt light bulb and shined it into a black hole, it would take 27 million years to increase it's mass by one gram. and that's not counting the mass that gets lost by the whole 1+1 < 2 thing.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Bobboau
yeah, it would actualy sudgest that it would gain mass slower.

now if you got close to it you'd be prety screwed, it's a little ball of death with a fairly decent force of attraction, think about the sort of navigational hazerd that would be, small black about the size of a pea everything within a million miles is drawen to it, and if you don't pay atention and you fly into it, you and your ship suddenly vanish, if someone was watchng maybe they'd see s small explosion or your ship getting riped apart, but if you were close enough to touch it the gravitational effects would be very intinse.

but we being all these millions of miles away here on earth wouldn't notice a thing.

Would they even see that?  (I'm wondering if the black-hole would simply suck up the light before it could reach the observer...)