Related Link » Monster black hole ejected from host galaxyQuestion: What is the kinetic energy with which this monster was ejected?
“A super-massive black hole — heavier than one billion suns — appears headed on an exit out of its home galaxy at 670,000 miles-an-hour.”
— By Dan Vergano, USA Today, 05/17/10
Answer: The kinetic energy "E", of a mass "m", having a speed "v" is computed as follows:
E = (½)mv2Such a monstrous amount of energy, however, corresponds to a seemingly small index of earthquake-magnitude "M", which can be computed as follows (as shown in my post Energy of Earthquake in Logarithmic Nutshell):
where
m = mass of a billion suns = 2×1039 kilograms
and
v = 670,000 miles/hour = 299,517 meters/second = 0.1% of lightspeed
yielding
E = (1039 kg)(3×105 m/s)2 = 9×1049 joules
which is equivalent to
E = 2×1040 Tons of TNT
Q.E.D.
E [Tons of TNT] = 2×1040 = 10( 3⁄2M - 3)The corresponding value of M for the Yucatán Peninsula Impact Event was 111/3 (as I previously computed in my above mentioned post).
Solving for M, we get
M = 2/3(log(2×1040) + 3) = 28.9
Post #1,277 Holy Cow!
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