Great Ball of Fire!

[retroborg]

This colossal 'ball of fire' is by far the largest object of this kind ever identified!



http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMWD1AATME_index_0.html

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/sep/xraymap

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...balls_of_fire/

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.co..._meinel_s.html

What's not cleared out, is whether this fireball is bigger than our Galaxy or any other Galaxy for that matter?

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

Impressive!

[retroborg]

Hell truly does exist!

[DavidM]

Goodness gracious!

[alsenior]

Goodness gracious!

great balls of fire ?

[Lee H]

I bet it's not as hot as a cluster of 'prescott's' though

[IBM]

Imagine that thing coming towards you! 3 million light years across....everytime you think you get a vague approximation of the scale of solar systems and gallaxies, something like this comes along and blows you away.

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

Imagine that thing coming towards you! 3 million light years across....everytime you think you get a vague approximation of the scale of solar systems and gallaxies, something like this comes along and blows you away.

[retroborg]

The diameter of this fireball of gas is 3 million light-years with a tail of another 3 million, while the size of known large galaxies (like our Galaxy) is about 100.000 light-years long and 3000 thick, but, considering mass, the ball has about 1 billion times the mass of the Sun, while the masses of known galaxies range from 0,25 to 2.080 billion times the mass of the Sun, with most of them around 10 billion.

So this huge fireball is larger than a Galaxy!

I wonder what would happen if it met a black hole?!

[99Flake]

On a treadmill?

[retroborg]

When I read about the fireball, I pictured the first stage of Gradius II or the fire level of Life Force/Salamander.

Which would explain why the Vic Viper would chart such a dangerous route to the enemy's lair: the firey mass is 5 billion times the size of Earth's solar system, so there was no going around. :wink:

[Brucelles]

I liked the 4th link. Space for space cadets. The fireball is proof to this person that the universe is actually contracting. While it's well known that balls contract (or retract) as they cool, the space fool really has no clue.

[chicken]

So this huge fireball is larger than a Galaxy!

I wonder what would happen if it met a black hole?!

Most of it would probably miss, since a black-hole's main pulling power is nowhere near the size of a galaxy. We have many massive black holes in the centre of ours and we're still ok. Some of it would get pulled in but I doubt it'd make a huge dent in its size.