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American Morning
Astronomical Leaps
Aired February 19, 2004 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Astronomers are living large these days, NASA's twin rovers exploring the planet. Now comes the first strong evidence of a celestial event long theorized, but never confirmed. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York's American Museum of National History, back with us here to try to help us understand what's happening deep in space. We have got some animation. All we can do is replicate this. Tell us what we are seeing, what you're observing.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIR., HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: What you have got here is the black hole is the obvious dark spot there. There's a star that happened to come a little too close, a bad day for that star. The tidal forces of the black hole ripped it into shreds, and part of the star descends down into the black hole, never to be seen again, but the act of having doing so emits copious amounts of x-rays, which were recently detected by the Chandra (ph) space telescope, NASA's Chandra telescope, and the European Space Agency's Newton x-ray telescope.
And so to watch a star get eaten is something we have always known is probably going on in the centers of galaxies, but to actually have confirming evidence that that's the case.
HEMMER: Back up the animation, run it again for our viewers.
What's at work inside of a black hole that would suck in a star into a...
DEGRASSE: Black holes aren't giant sucking machine is. They are just hungry beasts, whereas if you get too close, it will just eat you.
The problem with that star is it previously enjoyed a happy orbit far way from the black hole, but a close encounter with another star lost some of its energy, and then put it on a trajectory that bought it just a little too close.
HEMMER: How possible of something like this happening in our own galaxy?
DEGRASSE: Well, evidence suggests every galaxy may have a super massive black hole, such as the one shown there, even our galaxy, the Milky Way. Ours is not as massive as that one. That one might be about 100 million times the mass of the sun. So there's a little bit of a black hole envy for the Milky Way.
HEMMER: Black hole envy. Do we have anything on this planet that would ever put us in the possibility of finding ourselves in that scenario.
DEGRASSE: Do you mean, should we worry?
HEMMER: Better stated.
DEGRASSE: Super massive black holes are typically only found in the centers of galaxies. And the center of our galaxy is a long way from us, but if ours starts dining on gas streams and stars, it could be dangerous for the surrounding areas, even within our own galaxy. We have a quiet black hole.
HEMMER: You say dining, huh?
DEGRASSE: Dining, yes, that's what they do and it's the ripping apart that kind of makes the bloody for the star.
HEMMER: Thanks for coming to explain it. That was easy enough. Neil DeGrasse, thanks. We'll talk again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 19, 2004 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Astronomers are living large these days, NASA's twin rovers exploring the planet. Now comes the first strong evidence of a celestial event long theorized, but never confirmed. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York's American Museum of National History, back with us here to try to help us understand what's happening deep in space. We have got some animation. All we can do is replicate this. Tell us what we are seeing, what you're observing.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, DIR., HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: What you have got here is the black hole is the obvious dark spot there. There's a star that happened to come a little too close, a bad day for that star. The tidal forces of the black hole ripped it into shreds, and part of the star descends down into the black hole, never to be seen again, but the act of having doing so emits copious amounts of x-rays, which were recently detected by the Chandra (ph) space telescope, NASA's Chandra telescope, and the European Space Agency's Newton x-ray telescope.
And so to watch a star get eaten is something we have always known is probably going on in the centers of galaxies, but to actually have confirming evidence that that's the case.
HEMMER: Back up the animation, run it again for our viewers.
What's at work inside of a black hole that would suck in a star into a...
DEGRASSE: Black holes aren't giant sucking machine is. They are just hungry beasts, whereas if you get too close, it will just eat you.
The problem with that star is it previously enjoyed a happy orbit far way from the black hole, but a close encounter with another star lost some of its energy, and then put it on a trajectory that bought it just a little too close.
HEMMER: How possible of something like this happening in our own galaxy?
DEGRASSE: Well, evidence suggests every galaxy may have a super massive black hole, such as the one shown there, even our galaxy, the Milky Way. Ours is not as massive as that one. That one might be about 100 million times the mass of the sun. So there's a little bit of a black hole envy for the Milky Way.
HEMMER: Black hole envy. Do we have anything on this planet that would ever put us in the possibility of finding ourselves in that scenario.
DEGRASSE: Do you mean, should we worry?
HEMMER: Better stated.
DEGRASSE: Super massive black holes are typically only found in the centers of galaxies. And the center of our galaxy is a long way from us, but if ours starts dining on gas streams and stars, it could be dangerous for the surrounding areas, even within our own galaxy. We have a quiet black hole.
HEMMER: You say dining, huh?
DEGRASSE: Dining, yes, that's what they do and it's the ripping apart that kind of makes the bloody for the star.
HEMMER: Thanks for coming to explain it. That was easy enough. Neil DeGrasse, thanks. We'll talk again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
