Back on November 19, 2002...
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Back on November 19, 2002, the New York Times ran an article under the
ominous headline: "Astronomers Foresee Enormous Collision of Two Black Holes." The
article begins, "Two giant black holes have been found at the center of a galaxy born
from the joining of two smaller galaxies and are drifting toward a cataclysmic collision
that will send ripples throughout the universe ... That joining, astronomers said, will
result in a monumental release of radiation and gravitational waves that should stretch
across the universe."
Each of these two newly discovered black holes -- "collapsing objects so dense that their gravity draws in all material around them, including light" -- is about the size of our inner solar system. Place one of them within our solar system, in other words, and it would stretch clear from the sun to Mars. When these two vast, celestial objects collide, it's likely that a new galaxy will be born -- much like our own Milky Way, which astronomers believe was formed in a similar way. "We're seeing our own future," said Dr. Steinn Sigurdsson of Penn State University, explaining the significance of the announcement.
Given the ominous nature of this prediction, it's remarkable that it attracted so little attention at the time -- or, even more remarkably, in the five years since. The reason it didn't is the timing. The collision of the two black holes is due to take place in about four billion years. By then, astronomers predict, there should be no one left on Earth to witness it -- because they expect the Sun to have exploded into a nova about a billion years previously.
It's all in the timing. "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).
Each of these two newly discovered black holes -- "collapsing objects so dense that their gravity draws in all material around them, including light" -- is about the size of our inner solar system. Place one of them within our solar system, in other words, and it would stretch clear from the sun to Mars. When these two vast, celestial objects collide, it's likely that a new galaxy will be born -- much like our own Milky Way, which astronomers believe was formed in a similar way. "We're seeing our own future," said Dr. Steinn Sigurdsson of Penn State University, explaining the significance of the announcement.
Given the ominous nature of this prediction, it's remarkable that it attracted so little attention at the time -- or, even more remarkably, in the five years since. The reason it didn't is the timing. The collision of the two black holes is due to take place in about four billion years. By then, astronomers predict, there should be no one left on Earth to witness it -- because they expect the Sun to have exploded into a nova about a billion years previously.
It's all in the timing. "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).
