Errant black holes and other unsettling thoughts

I was going to write about getting to a decent pitch, but I’m much more into weird space news right now.

Such as...

A black hole nine times the size of the sun is pulling in space and time and spitting out irregular plumes of matter which could mean mean it’s spinning out of control. But relax, it’s 8,000 light years away. How far is that really? Well, assuming a black hole travels slower than the speed of light because it is super, and massive, then it would take longer than 8,000 years to get to us. So, no sweat right? But black holes eat light for breakfast, (and lunch and dinner), so I don’t know, maybe that changes the rules?

Kidding, kidding, we have nothing to worry about. It’s not like there is a massive rogue black hole out there. Oh never mind- there is, and it’s traveling at 5 million miles per hour. Scientists think it was two black holes (twins perhaps?) that merged, creating gravitational waves. The collision sent the black hole screaming through space at a speed that would let it go from earth to the moon in 3 minutes. That counts as fast in my world. But not headed in our direction, right?

And apparently physicists are re-checking all their math after new calculations of the Hubble constant show that the universe is younger (by a billion years) and expanding faster than they thought. (Really, is anyone but physicists thinking about the age of universe?).

A younger universe that is expanding faster than anyone thought, ok, but what is the universe expanding into? What was that square inch (or million of light years) before it became the newest section of the universe? Is this universe (our known universe) edging in on someone else’s reality? Maybe a universe that, to us, seems like a parallel dimension? Anything is possible.