[HN Gopher] Astronomers 'image' a mysterious dark object in the ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Astronomers 'image' a mysterious dark object in the distant
       Universe
        
       Author : b2ccb2
       Score  : 182 points
       Date   : 2025-10-14 14:45 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mpg.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mpg.de)
        
       | orliesaurus wrote:
       | a far away civilization probably draining energy from the
       | emptiness of space to power some AI datacenters /s
        
         | jsbisviewtiful wrote:
         | Those gen AI images of cats playing poker won't create their
         | own energy, you know T_T
        
         | excalibur wrote:
         | It's our descendants. They had to travel back in time to escape
         | entropy and find sufficient quantities of energy to sustain
         | them, which is why they're 10 billion light years away.
        
           | DaveZale wrote:
           | also, they didn't like what the future looked like
        
             | baggachipz wrote:
             | They're blaming Tylenol?! That's it, we're out of here.
        
         | delichon wrote:
         | That would be about 2.5 on the Kardashev scale, and in terms of
         | heat, between Kim and Khloe on the Kardashian scale.
        
           | _joel wrote:
           | Is that from the sci-fi novel "Dyson Fear" :)
        
             | Zigurd wrote:
             | That vacuum is scary. Scary overpriced.
        
           | blackhaj7 wrote:
           | Haha, superb
        
         | daxfohl wrote:
         | AI to the edge meant they had to port CUDA to a JS framework.
        
         | alansaber wrote:
         | I look forwards to the python tutorial for building gpt-2 with
         | string theory
        
         | DonHopkins wrote:
         | That is literally the plot of the game Dyson Sphere Program.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_XqHWx-v_Y
        
       | jagged-chisel wrote:
       | Is this the first time this article author has seen "image" used
       | like this? We image human anatomy the same way - sophisticated
       | algorithms take the output of CT, ultrasound, MRI and build
       | something we can interpret visually.
        
         | momoschili wrote:
         | why would you get that impression?
        
           | nonethewiser wrote:
           | my read on it.
           | 
           | - the quotes around image in the title
           | 
           | - the commenter believes image is the correct word in a more
           | literal sense
        
             | jagged-chisel wrote:
             | It is also in quotes in one of the image captions
        
       | staplers wrote:
       | the lowest mass dark object currently measured            one
       | million times the mass of the Sun
       | 
       | Sometimes you read things that remind you how vast and untamable
       | our universe really is.
        
         | catigula wrote:
         | If you think that's crazy, it's likely a drop in the bucket
         | comared to the noumenonal world.
         | 
         | There's no reason to think that our senses encompass the vast
         | majority of understanding everything in reality and current
         | evidence that they, in fact, do not, via dark matter as a
         | primary source.
         | 
         | I suspect our senses encompass a meaningless fraction of the
         | noumenon.
        
           | procflora wrote:
           | In what way is dark matter not a phenomenon? Just because we
           | don't know what it is doesn't make it a noumenon.
        
             | catigula wrote:
             | It's that it demonstrates that some sort of noumenon can
             | likely have partial but not 'full' overlap as we understand
             | it with a phenomenon.
             | 
             | To elaborate, the noumenon can have properties that are
             | unknown to us and outside the purview of certain senses (if
             | not all) but still have partial phenomenal effects such as
             | gravitational effects.
             | 
             | Given partial overlap, we could, and likely should, surmise
             | that overlap, if partial, can also be zero. In fact,
             | partial overlap with certain things (such as the
             | gravitational field) but no sensory experience is exactly
             | what we'd predict if this were true.
             | 
             | The mistake is thinking I'm asserting that things are
             | phenomenon or noumenon when that's not quite right. Mostly,
             | the supposition is that things can exist and have either
             | 'full' (unlikely I think), partial, or zero overlap with
             | our sensory experience. Things that demonstrably have
             | partial overlap suggest a wider world of things. I simply
             | find the idea that our evolved sensory experience encompass
             | even a sizable fraction of reality to lack epistemic
             | humility.
             | 
             | This is obviously speculative.
        
               | throwway120385 wrote:
               | A good example of this would be the scope of our sense of
               | sight as it relates to the entire electromagnetic
               | spectrum. We can't see things like UV or Gamma radiation,
               | we can only infer their existence by their effect on
               | things we can see. The reality is that those phenomena
               | might not actually exist in any perceivable way. The only
               | thing we know, strictly speaking, is that the effect
               | happens, and we have a plausible mental model for why the
               | effect happens that predicted other effects that we also
               | observe. But we can't prove that the mental model _is_
               | reality.
               | 
               | This is at the heart of the Allegory of The Cave:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave. What
               | we're discussing is a kind of "Natural Philosophy" or
               | Physics, the study of that which is.
        
         | _joel wrote:
         | Yep, this still blows my mind, has a radius of 330 million
         | light years, of, er, nothing (well 60 galaxies compared to what
         | should be several thousand).
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C3%B6tes_Void
        
           | bobmcnamara wrote:
           | sssh, that's where we store the hammers
        
         | GuB-42 wrote:
         | I think there is a shortcut being taken here.
         | 
         | We are surrounded by dark objects, a rock is a dark object,
         | exoplanets are dark objects, and so are black holes. Pretty
         | much everything but stars are dark objects. They are all dark
         | because they don't emit light.
         | 
         | Here, I think they mean stuff (whatever it is) that can only be
         | detected by gravitational lensing, and it makes sense that it
         | has to be extremely heavy, because gravity is so weak.
        
           | RogerL wrote:
           | I'm not a physicist but every definition of dark matter that
           | I read says it does not interact with electromagnetic
           | radiation hence it is invisible, and rocks are not that dark
           | matter (wiki. NASA, etc)
        
             | lutusp wrote:
             | > ... every definition of dark matter that I read says it
             | does not interact with electromagnetic radiation ...
             | 
             | Actually, dark matter does interact with electromagnetic
             | radiation -- it can deflect it, as in the case of
             | gravitational lensing. But dark matter doesn't either emit
             | nor absorb electromagnetic radiation directly.
             | 
             | We only know about dark matter because of its gravitational
             | effects.
        
               | GuB-42 wrote:
               | How about stellar mass black holes?
               | 
               | They are much lighter than 1 million solar masses and we
               | know a few of them, with a variety of ways to detect
               | them, including companion stars orbiting around them and
               | gravitational waves during mergers.
               | 
               | Black holes fit the definition of dark matter, as they
               | neither emit nor absorb electromagnetic radiation, not in
               | a way that could be detected anyways. This is the "MACHO"
               | theory of dark matter, which is not the favorite, but it
               | is still taken seriously. Stellar mass black holes have
               | been ruled out, I think, but it doesn't mean dark matter
               | can't be made of black holes. In fact, primordial black
               | holes are a rather hot theory.
        
             | seanw444 wrote:
             | So how do we know that these "dark matter objects" aren't
             | actually just massive collections of normal matter that is
             | dim enough and at such a far distance that it would appear
             | (angular resolution-wise) to be invisible, but we can still
             | detect the lensing?
        
               | ianburrell wrote:
               | There are a few reasons. It would be visible when
               | backlit. Gravitational lensing detection limits the size
               | so it can't planets (MACHOs). The CMB shows that only
               | sixth of matter interacts with other matter, the rest is
               | only interacts gravitationally.
        
               | mr_toad wrote:
               | > just massive collections of normal matter
               | 
               | Normal matter in the universe is mostly hydrogen, which
               | should coalesce to form stars, which give off light. The
               | lack of light compared to the estimated mass is precisely
               | the paradox.
        
           | lawlessone wrote:
           | yeah all those other things absorb light so they can be
           | detected by the light they block and the infrared light the
           | re-emit.
           | 
           | Dark matter seems more ghostly , like gravitational shadow of
           | matter
        
       | sixo wrote:
       | Can someone knowledgeable weigh in: is the "dark object" here
       | believed to be a localized blob of dark matter? A dark star or
       | black hole? Or is "dark" being used generally to mean "not bright
       | enough to see at this distance"?
        
         | bbarnett wrote:
         | Or a cloaked ship?
        
           | gclawes wrote:
           | EXCESSION
        
           | sixo wrote:
           | If so it's a big one, 1M solar masses.
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | That's just how warp drives happen to appear from the
             | outside.
        
           | preisschild wrote:
           | ... and its heading right for us :P
        
         | alansaber wrote:
         | They found a statistical anomaly that they're trying to
         | atrribute to new physics, using some novel maths. So a tiny
         | speck of evidence towards a new theory of matter (i know
         | nothing about astro, just my supposition)
        
         | momoschili wrote:
         | Dark in the context of astrophysics means specifically that the
         | object/matter does not interact directly with electromagnetic
         | radiation (eg absorb an optical/microwave/radio photon). So it
         | is probably dark matter, but probably unlikely to be a black
         | hole because we can typically detect a black hole's effects in
         | an indirect manner :P
        
         | bbor wrote:
         | I'm an amateur but I feel confident enough to answer --
         | hopefully not a mistake!
         | 
         | They're explicitly looking for "Dark Matter", which doesn't
         | "interact" with normal ("baryonic") matter or electromagnetic
         | radiation (e.g. light). So it's not a black hole for sure, as
         | those are composed of regular ol' matter.
         | 
         | RE:"dark star", that's really up in the air, I'd say! AFAICT
         | the only academic reference to that term is for normal stars
         | _influenced by_ dark matter[1], but kinda the whole problem
         | here is that we don 't know much about what dark matter is
         | composed of _or_ into. Certainly it 's not going to be a star
         | in the traditional sense as it can't emit light, but I'm not
         | aware of any reason this object can't end up being a giant
         | sphere.
         | 
         | FWIW, Wikipedia says "One of the most massive stars known is
         | Eta Carinae, with 100-200 [solar masses]", whereas this object
         | "has a mass that is a million times greater than that of our
         | Sun". If we're going to use metaphors, I think "dark dwarf
         | galaxy" might be more appropriate?
         | 
         | [1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1004.1258
        
           | bongodongobob wrote:
           | 100-200 solar masses is not one of the largest known. There
           | are many that are 1000s of times more massive than the sun.
        
             | shagie wrote:
             | I'm unaware of any stars in the 1000 Msun range. Wikipedia
             | puts 291 Msun of R136a1 at the largest. After that, 195 M
             | of R136a2 is the next. A star at 100 Msun would be in the
             | most massive stars known.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_stars#Li
             | s...
        
               | mr_toad wrote:
               | " A number of the "stars" listed below may actually be
               | two or more companions orbiting too closely for our
               | telescopes to distinguish, each star possibly being
               | massive in itself but not necessarily "supermassive" to
               | either be on this list, or near the top of it. "
               | 
               | " More globally, statistics on stellar populations seem
               | to indicate that the upper mass limit is in the
               | 120-solar-mass range,[1] so any mass estimate above this
               | range is suspect. "
               | 
               | There are good theoretical reasons why a star shouldn't
               | normally get as big as the ones on the top of the list.
               | Long story short: they'd very quickly shed mass due to
               | their intense luminosity. Some of them might even be
               | boiling with bubbles of pure radiation.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_luminosity
               | 
               | Beyond that, there's also the possibility of pair-
               | instability supernova, which might cause the most massive
               | stars to literally disintegrate.
        
             | baconbrand wrote:
             | This confused me too from all those solar object size
             | comparisons I've seen. Turns out there are stars that are
             | 1000s of times bigger than the sun, but they aren't the
             | same density.
        
           | t8sr wrote:
           | (I'm an astrophysics undergrad.) Black holes aren't composed
           | of anything, they're just defined by their charge, spin and
           | mass equivalent.
           | 
           | Dust clouds have those mass ranges. It's not a galaxy-scale
           | mass by any measure.
           | 
           | This thread has a lot of CS people being confident about
           | physics.
        
             | evanb wrote:
             | I was always surprised that when we talk about BHs mass,
             | charge, and spin that we really mean U(1) (electromagnetic)
             | gauge charge and not charges from global symmetries. (If
             | BHs had global charge, you could at least say that this or
             | that black hole was made out of N baryons, or whatever.)
             | 
             | But it's really so---according to GR, black holes don't
             | have global charges. So even if you see a star made out of
             | baryons collapse into a black hole, once the BH settles
             | down into a steady state you can't say it's "really" got
             | baryons inside: the baryon number gets destroyed.
             | 
             | (Of course, a different model of gravity that preserves
             | unitarity might upset this understanding.)
        
               | daxfohl wrote:
               | And that a BH made from matter and one made from
               | antimatter are mathematically identical, and merging them
               | would not cause any explosion.
        
               | actionfromafar wrote:
               | Thanks! That made me (superficially of course) understand
               | it. Super weird stuff.
        
             | 9991 wrote:
             | Welcome to Hacker News.
        
             | bbor wrote:
             | I mean, I included a disclaimer... But regardless, you
             | appear to be wrong on both counts (or at least
             | contradicting Wikipedia):
             | 
             | 1. "The presence of a black hole can be inferred through
             | its interaction with _OTHER MATTER_ and with
             | electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. "
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole
             | 
             | 2. "A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of _ABOUT
             | 1000_ up to several billion stars "
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_galaxy
             | 
             | Darn astrophysics majors being confident about astronomy!
             | ;)
        
           | tremon wrote:
           | _which doesn 't "interact" with normal ("baryonic") matter_
           | 
           | I think you mean it doesn't interact electromagnetically with
           | either matter or radiation. It does interact with normal
           | matter via gravity -- that's pretty much the strongest
           | (only?) argument for its existence.
           | 
           |  _I 'm not aware of any reason this object can't end up being
           | a giant sphere_
           | 
           | AIUI, most theories posit that solid spheres of dark matter
           | are very unlikely because matter accretion is governed by
           | electromagnetism in addition to gravity, and dark matter is
           | not supposed to obey the former. Most models assume that dark
           | matter is organized in gaseous clouds (halos); strictly
           | speaking that's still a giant sphere, just not in the same
           | way that Jupiter or the Sun or even the Oort Cloud is.
        
         | t8sr wrote:
         | Definitionally, yes. It's inert but lenses light around it.
         | 
         | The paper is more about the technical achievement of detecting
         | it, IIUC. It's not the first dark matter inference we've had,
         | and doesn't really tell us anything new about the stuff.
        
           | daxfohl wrote:
           | It challenges warm dark matter and ultralight dark matter
           | theories because they'd be less likely to clump into
           | something so small. Similarly MOND would have trouble
           | explaining a completely isolated chunk of it at this size
           | (any baryonic matter trapped in a region this small would
           | almost certainly emit enough light to detect).
        
             | t8sr wrote:
             | I'm admittedly a few years out of date in this, but weren't
             | those already kinda ruled out? I've never met anyone who
             | took MOND seriously - it looks like it's a pet project of a
             | small number of people who cite each other, and people in
             | different subfields have always been saying it doesn't work
             | for them (diffuse galaxies, etc.).
             | 
             | I know the current models favor cold DM, I thought the hot
             | DM model was abandoned already when it became clear that
             | clusters of any size exist?
        
         | burnerRhodov2 wrote:
         | In this context, "dark object" really does mean a localized
         | blob of dark matter, not a black hole or a dim, normal-matter
         | object.
         | 
         | The research team detected it only through its gravitational
         | lensing effect -- the way it slightly distorted the light from
         | a more distant galaxy. There's no emission at any wavelength
         | (optical, infrared, or radio), and its gravitational signature
         | matches a million-solar-mass clump of invisible mass rather
         | than a compact point source like a black hole.
         | 
         | They specifically interpret it as a dark matter subhalo -- one
         | of the small, dense lumps that simulations of "cold dark
         | matter" predict should pepper the universe's larger halos. It's
         | too massive to be a single star, far too diffuse to be a
         | stellar remnant, and not luminous enough to be a faint galaxy.
         | 
         | So "dark" here isn't just shorthand for "too dim to see at this
         | distance" -- it's used in the literal physical sense: matter
         | that doesn't emit or absorb light at all, detectable only via
         | gravity.
         | 
         | Eventually, all the dark matter clumps into rings around
         | galaxies, but since this one is so distant, ~10B light years,
         | so we are seeing that clump as it was that long ago before it
         | difused into it's ring shape we can see in the galaxies around
         | us.
        
           | hermitcrab wrote:
           | Why does dark matter form halos/rings around galaxies. Why
           | isn't it attracted to the centre of the galaxy like 'normal'
           | matter?
        
             | devmor wrote:
             | I believe that you have the order of operations
             | misunderstood.
             | 
             | I probably don't know that much more than you about the
             | subject, but from what I understand, the prevailing model
             | suggests that these Halos formed early in the formation of
             | the universe when spacetime had varying "pockets" of
             | density that naturally led to these halos - the formation
             | of the galactic disk therein was actually supported by the
             | halo existing first, because baryonic matter (aka non-dark
             | matter, the stuff that makes up planets, stars, etc) was
             | still too energetic from the formation of the universe to
             | become gravitationally bound to itself.
        
               | hermitcrab wrote:
               | Does the dark matter not move under the influence of
               | gravity like 'normal' matter?
        
               | devmor wrote:
               | At this point my knowledge probably pales in comparison
               | to skimming some Wikipedia articles, but my understanding
               | is that there is just so much dark matter concentrated in
               | these halos and inter-galactic structures of it that the
               | gravitational effects of baryonic matter are negligible
               | in comparison.
               | 
               | I believe dark matter comprises something like 80-85% of
               | all matter in the universe.
        
             | marcosdumay wrote:
             | It is attracted to the center of the galaxy.
             | 
             | Normal matter also makes halos or rings around the center
             | of the galaxy. That's how gravity works. And since dark
             | matter interacts less, it stays more spread.
        
               | hermitcrab wrote:
               | Halo implies empty (or low density) at the center. The
               | 'normal' matter is denser at the center of a galaxy. I'm
               | trying to understand why the difference.
               | 
               | >since dark matter interacts less
               | 
               | With electromagnetism or gravity?
        
               | hermitcrab wrote:
               | Did a bit more reading. I was thinking of a halo like an
               | angel's halo, a disk with greater density near the edge
               | and less at the center. But it seems that dark matter
               | halos are roughly spherical with greatest sensity near
               | the centre. In which case halo seems like a pretty poor
               | name.
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | From the paper, it could be the dark-matter halo of an
         | otherwise too faint dwarf galaxy. They state that a "more
         | definitive statement on what type of object [it] is will
         | require deep optical/infrared observations to detect any
         | potential EM emission".
        
       | tiffanyh wrote:
       | Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45538113
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | Actual paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02651-2
       | 
       | From the abstract: "This is the lowest-mass object known to us,
       | by two orders of magnitude, to be detected at a cosmological
       | distance by its gravitational effect. This work demonstrates the
       | observational feasibility of using gravitational imaging to probe
       | the million-solar-mass regime far beyond our local Universe."
        
         | blamestross wrote:
         | And when you are trying out a new imaging method, the selection
         | bias for "long tail weird stuff" that shows up is pretty high.
         | 
         | Assuming this is repeatable, it will take a while to
         | contextualize.
        
       | geniium wrote:
       | Probably a small bug in the matrix
        
       | deadbabe wrote:
       | It's nothing, mostly empty space.
        
       | baconbrand wrote:
       | I have nothing but admiration for people who can study space and
       | not melt down into a permanent existential crisis.
       | 
       | This is cool as heck, and now I'm going to go back to my computer
       | job and try not to think about how ridiculously tiny and fragile
       | my little life is.
        
         | HPsquared wrote:
         | Conversely, people who study microscopic phenomena might end up
         | with gigantic inflated egos. "Lord of the atoms"
        
           | dgfl wrote:
           | It's our job. It's mundane. It's only cool again when you
           | step back for these kind of publications, or when you go to a
           | conference and you see a bunch of adjacent (and importantly,
           | completed) work. 99% of the time we look at a screen / piece
           | of paper / whiteboard.
        
         | somenameforme wrote:
         | Another fun one. The Cosmic Calendar. [1] Imagine breaking down
         | the history of the universe into a single year. It really
         | offers some amazing perspective on the length of life, and what
         | it means.
         | 
         | [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8UwPd1z20
        
         | VTimofeenko wrote:
         | I wonder if it's similar to how mefical doctors feel about
         | their jobs. It's gotta turn into a bit of a routine, otherwise
         | they will just spend time in that existential crisis and not
         | get anything done.
         | 
         | > This is cool as heck, and now I'm going to go back to my
         | computer job and try not to think about how ridiculously tiny
         | and fragile my little life is.
         | 
         | There could be an alternative take here: we really lucked out
         | that life as we know it exists at all. So we kinda won the
         | lottery already.
        
           | kakacik wrote:
           | Some form of life is probably quite common given the scale of
           | entire universe, amino acids could be found in space for
           | example coming from pre-solar times. If you understand what I
           | just wrote you have to accept above as fact.
           | 
           | Now there are fuck tonne of filters we passed so far, may
           | very well fail on next one (probably self-destruction), and
           | we are lucky with so far stable good place for life. Given
           | there are billions of trillions of planets, no way we are on
           | the very top of that ridiculous number.
           | 
           | We may be one of the earlier civs but no way we are first
           | neither. But how we would recognize a civilization that has
           | say just a _1 billion years_ headstart? Dyson spheres are for
           | fools ignoring dark forest stuff, not something really smart
           | cautious beings would do. Matter holds enormous amount of
           | energy, and there are other ways to extract it in a less
           | obvious ways, ie black holes or probably some other ways.
           | 
           | Look at it this way - we are maybe building a small baby
           | steps for one of big civilizations of universe. Still
           | extremely primitive in all possible ways while arrogant
           | enough to mostly not see it, but there is potential for true
           | greatness. Otherwise we will perish, I dont see anything in
           | between.
        
         | gigatexal wrote:
         | Same. As soon as I really let myself consider how vast, empty,
         | desolate empty space is and then imagine myself floating in it
         | with no reference and unable to tell if I am up or down or
         | going anywhere ... I get all sorts of dread.
         | 
         | That being said... I'd love to if I were terminally ill yet
         | capable enough to understand what was happening -- to be yeeted
         | into a super super massive blackhole that was not feeding such
         | that I would not be torn to shreds or vaporized by the
         | accretion disk and ultimately understand what lies at the
         | center of my now time horizon...
        
           | butlike wrote:
           | You're in good company with the atoms in your fingernail, I'm
           | sure :)
        
           | WaxProlix wrote:
           | Tidal forces would still shred and disfigured you
           | horrifically well before the event horizon. The term is
           | literally 'spagghetification'
        
             | pixl97 wrote:
             | Depends on the size of the black hole. Small black holes,
             | yes you get shredded. Supermassive black holes maybe not.
             | Of course the rotation of the black hole may have a
             | different idea about that.
        
               | gigatexal wrote:
               | exactly. I am thinking hyper massive -- super duper
               | massive ones where I could ostensibly be falling for
               | minutes? days? towards the end of time... what bliss
        
         | pseudosavant wrote:
         | Same. The scales that the universe operates on (distance, time,
         | mass/energy, etc) make the human experience so infinitely small
         | as to be nearly nothing. Yet, here we are. Pondering our own
         | existence.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | It's actually one of the things I enjoy about it. It is a
         | reminder of just how unimportant we actually are. All of the
         | rat races and stress and worry we endure and/or put ourselves
         | through is ultimately for nothing. Since it doesn't matter
         | anyways, might as well live it in the most free and self
         | fulfilling way one can.
        
           | hnuser123456 wrote:
           | Yep. Plus, with the Rubin telescope online, we have a pretty
           | high resolution and high frequency scan of the solar system
           | where we could detect anything that could hurt us pretty far
           | out, probably even wandering black holes.
        
           | smokel wrote:
           | Whether something is important or unimportant is something
           | that only humans, and possibly some animals, and possibly
           | some AI, can reason about. Most of the universe does not
           | reason, and does not think that things are important or not.
           | 
           | Importance is a local concept, and it can be quite relevant
           | locally.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Fine. s/important/significant/ or any other word you feel
             | befitting.
        
             | alcover wrote:
             | I agree so much. For all we know yet, there's nothing out
             | there. Nothing conscious or even sentient. So our lives and
             | the life on earth are infinitely important.
             | 
             | I never understood this `we're but a speck`. Do you know of
             | many other specks with life ?
        
               | objektif wrote:
               | How does existence of life outside Earth (or lack of it)
               | change importance of our life in the grand scheme of
               | things?
        
           | spoiler wrote:
           | This attitude is referred to as optimistic nihilism, if
           | anyone wants to look more into it.
           | 
           | I've been trying to adopt this mindset myself in recent
           | years.
           | 
           | It's helped me "cope" and accept certain things about my
           | life. It's not how my mind developed initially, so it doesn't
           | come naturally to me and I sometimes fall into old habits.
           | So, sometimes I need to remind myself to practice it.
           | 
           | Anyway, thanks for the reminder! :)
        
         | Keyframe wrote:
         | It kind of became a daily obsession of mine recently, the
         | question being - how can we NOT study space and what's around
         | us as almost the main thing? I kind of regret not going that
         | direction when I was in my 20s.
        
         | malux85 wrote:
         | If something that is true scares you, you should think about it
         | and look at it, in little bits, until it doesn't.
         | 
         | Accept your fragility, be grateful for what the universe gives
         | you, be humble about your limits and faults, and spread
         | happiness, joy and love to the other fragile, limited beings
         | around you. There's your cure for existential dread.
        
         | cvoss wrote:
         | In some sense, our small size with respect to astronomical-
         | scale processes does not make us all that fragile, because we
         | are also very _short-lived_ with respect to these things.
         | 
         | Afraid of the impending collision of Andromeda with the Milky
         | Way? Not to worry. Life as we know will be gone by then. Huge
         | processes like galactic mergers are "in slow motion" relative
         | to our every day processes due to light speed bounds. The time
         | they take to occur is enormous because the distances involved
         | are enormous. In a cool way, the presence and influence of an
         | astronomical object is just as insignificant to our processes
         | as the presence and influence of one electron, and for the same
         | reason: enormous difference of scale. The big stuff is no more
         | scary than the small stuff.
        
           | XorNot wrote:
           | Reminds me of my favorite writing prompt that was so good it
           | was it's own story too:
           | 
           | "It's been publicly confirmed that our galaxy is within the
           | open maw of a massive galaxy-eating beast. The beast can't
           | move faster than light, so it'll take hundreds of millions of
           | years for it to finally bite down. This is something that
           | humans will just have to live with"
           | 
           | (I don't think you can actually tell a good story with this,
           | it's a background detail you would put in some other story).
        
       | hearsathought wrote:
       | Not a "distant universe" but our universe distant in time ( aka
       | our universe in the past when it was younger ).
       | 
       | The title reads like astronomers found a mysterious dark object
       | in another universe. Like a distant solar system or a distant
       | galaxy.
       | 
       | Or am I misunderstanding the findings here?
        
         | aethrum wrote:
         | no it doesn't
        
       | cellular wrote:
       | What are the white blocky pixels in the picture?
       | 
       | Why are they there?
        
       | womitt wrote:
       | The big intergalactic 220V plug
        
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