[OT] Black Holes Merge--Universe "wobbles"

[Tom Cashel]

When the black holes do merge, much of the angular momentum of their waltz will be converted into gravitational waves that will race across the universe, touching and affecting everything they pass, Hasinger said.


Joan Centrella, a NASA (news - web sites) astrophysicists who did not participate in the Chandra study, said the merger would briefly warp the fabric of space, just as a pebble thrown into a still pond will cause bank-to-bank ripples. The effect of the gravitational waves on other stars, galaxies and planets will be like the way ripples in that pond cause floating leaves to rise and fall slightly, said Centrella.


"The ripple across space will be such that a planet could pulsate," said Sigurdsson. "A whole planet could be squeezed by an inch or so every few minutes," depending on how close it is to the merged black holes. Satellites would jiggle and navigation equipment could wobble momentarily, he said.

Read the entire article
here.

Great starting point for a D20 Modern campaign...where would you take it?

 

[Umbran]

Great starting point for a D20 Modern campaign...where would you take it?

Depends on how realistic I wanted to be.

I mean, they say a planet would be squeezed by inches. That's inches in thousands of miles. On smaller objects, the effect would be correspondingly smaller. It's not something you'd likely notice. It makes exciting reportage to the mass media, because folks focus on the "squeezing of a planet", and forget the perspective of size.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Ooh, that's exciting.

But I said D20 Modern. Not D20 real-life.

 

[Desdichado]

Don't forget the fact that it said also that we'll have to wait 100 million years for the collision of the black holes!

Actually, as well, I wouldn't discount the effect of that squeezing at that rate. That may not seem like much, but that will cause some serious stress on the material properties of the planet -- I can envision a Thundarr the Barbarian type situation, in which the moon cracks in half, the world is thrown into chaos and disarray, etc. Essentially, it could cause an apocalypse.

Also, don't forget that any planet close enough to feel the gravity waves will also get intense exposure to the radiant energy (light, x-rays) that the collision will give out in spades. Or even the plasma bursts.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I bet it could open the dread gates of R'lyeh where Cthulhu lies asleep and dreaming, too.

 

[Avatar28]

Realistically it ISN'T that much. The moon and sun have a far greater effect on the earth than that. There might be a slight increase in vulcanism and earthquakes at worst. Probably nothing significant though.

 

[Tom Cashel]

What the hell is this "realism" you folks are on about? I can't find it in the D20 Modern rulebook.

 

[Psion]

Heh... back in the olden days, I ran a freeform game where I had the players deal with the consequences of such an event. So you all are behind the power curve by about 15 years.

 

[myrdden]

What the hell is this "realism" you folks are on about? I can't find it in the D20 Modern rulebook.

LOL...

But returning to your original question, perhaps the waves disrupt some sort of gate found on Earth. The disruption opens (or perhaps closes) it causing supernatural beings to appear.

Or perhaps it affects the shroud that separtes the real world from the magical world on Earth.

It definitelt could be used as the catalyst for lots of different things.

Myrdden

 

[Balgus]

Joshua Dyal:
Don't forget the fact that it said also that we'll have to wait 100 million years for the collision of the black holes!

Well, In that case, it had already happened 300 million years ago- you forgot to take into consideration the fact that this is happening 400 million light years away.

*disclaimer* give and take a couple days for the media. You know they always wait a few days to release information.