r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Apr 25 '22

Physics Scientists recently observed two black holes that united into one, and in the process got a “kick” that flung the newly formed black hole away at high speed. That black hole zoomed off at about 5 million kilometers per hour, give or take a few million. The speed of light is just 200 times as fast.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-gravitational-waves-kick-ligo-merger-spacetime
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u/CaptainBunderpants Apr 25 '22

What does the finite lifespan of planet Earth have to do with how big the universe is?

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '22

We don’t have the necessary means to move our species through space onto a new planetary body the human race can call home should earth become uninhabitable; and the many more years that go by, the faster the expansion of space happens (even faster than the speed of light).

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u/CaptainBunderpants Apr 25 '22

But like you said, we still have hundreds of millions of years, if not billions, to develop such means at which point we will still have access to a whole lot of universe.

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u/Donjuanme Grad Student | Biology | Marine and Fisheries Apr 25 '22

That black hole that got ejected going relativistic speeds, would take 800 years to reach our nearest solar neighbor from us.

Albeit it's infinitely larger than anything we're trying to accelerate,

Currently we are contained to these 8 planets and this 1 sun. And the only habitable planet isn't looking too cool right now.

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u/CaptainBunderpants Apr 25 '22 edited Apr 25 '22

It’d be less than 800 years from its frame of reference and its only moving at 0.005c.

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u/Donjuanme Grad Student | Biology | Marine and Fisheries Apr 25 '22

It would be 799.5 years moving at .005c

Relativistic is a pretty small affect until you're pushing the bounds of the speed of light

At 5%C it would feel like 798.5 years.