[HN Gopher] Black Hole Flare Is Biggest and Most Distant Seen
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Black Hole Flare Is Biggest and Most Distant Seen
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2025-11-06 18:54 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.caltech.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.caltech.edu)
        
       | vkou wrote:
       | > "If you convert our entire Sun to energy, using Albert
       | Einstein's famous formula E = mc2, that's how much energy has
       | been pouring out from this flare since we began observing it,"
       | 
       | It's a great journalistic quote, but the implication here is that
       | the star's entire mass is being converted to energy as part of
       | this process, which it very obviously isn't. (The black hole is
       | net-gaining mass as a result of all this.)
        
         | munchler wrote:
         | "the scientists estimate that the supermassive black hole
         | gobbled a star with a mass at least 30 times greater than that
         | of our Sun."
         | 
         | So if only 1/30 of the star's mass was converted to energy, the
         | quote would be correct (and possibly even an understatement).
        
       | SoftTalker wrote:
       | "the star wandered too close to a gargantuan black hole"
       | 
       | As if the star had any agency in that.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-11-06 23:01 UTC)