At the core of the Galaxy

[Nyrath]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081211.html

[sinanju]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081211.html

To quote someone on Slashdot, "It's official--humanity is circling the drain."

[Nyrath]

The classic space opera plot seed is that aeons ago, hyper-advanced but extinct alien civilizations could have used a black hole to imprison some uber-powerful monster, that is, a monster that could not be killed. The civilization would figure that would solve the problem of the rampaging monster.

Of course, the monster could be just now finishing the aeons-long task of breaking out of the black hole, free to rampage again.

Naturally, the larger the black hole, the stronger the monster would be.

A black hole with a mass of four million times the Sun could hold a lotta monster.

[Kristopher]

"That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die."

[Lucius]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081211.html

*sings*

There's a black hole in the middle of the galaxy
It'll suck down you, it'll suck down me
Don't believe it just wait and see,
We're goin' down the cosmic drain.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary wishes to thank Sally and Barry Childs-Helton

[shadowcat1313]

There's a black hole in the middle of the galaxy
It'll suck down you, it'll suck down me
Don't believe it just wait and see,
We're goin' down the cosmic drain

having gotten to hear barry and sally sing this live, complete with sound effects... its great fun.

will the black hole emit a loud eletromagnetic burp afterwards?

[clsage]

The classic space opera plot seed is that aeons ago, hyper-advanced but extinct alien civilizations could have used a black hole to imprison some uber-powerful monster, that is, a monster that could not be killed. The civilization would figure that would solve the problem of the rampaging monster.....

As a contrary, there is the idea used in the Gateway series, where the high tech HeeChee decided to hide out in a "pocket of spacetime" fabricated by manipulating a black hole (or several) around the vacinity of Sagitarius YY which, if my galactic cartography is accurate, is close in to the galactic core...Or there-abouts. Keeping the monsters/threats out, while the passage of time in "the pocket" is slowed, alowing the HeeChee to extend the lifetime of their civilization and wait out the bad guys.....

-Carl-