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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, September 28, 2017 7:16 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] ligo does it again<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 9:19 PM, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<br> <o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>ASTONISHING! Hanford LIGO just announced the detection of the 4<sup>th</sup> black hole merger:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news" target="_blank">https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>How can there be so many of these? John?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>…And how can they be so big? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>I have been going nuts trying to figure that one out too. There couldn’t have been stars that size to start with I wouldn’t think, or if so, my notion of star formation is completely wrong. I have been trying to get up to speed on Eddington Limit to see where my notion went wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>…Nobody predicted that, just a few years ago people were saying if LIGO found anything (and some said they wouldn't)…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>I do confess I was one of the naysayers. Now I am going back and rethinking my paltry understanding of General Relativity and star formation. When I read the proposal for LIGO a bunch of years ago, I would have estimated the chances of even a single detection in my lifetime about a percent. Now we have four events in two years and even that is an understatement: the instruments are offline much of that time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>And that 20-40 solar masses range is just mind-boggling.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>… <i>“With the next observing run planned for Fall 2018 we can expect such detections weekly or even more often.” </i>That would be really cool! John K Clark <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Ja, but even then… what if they do? How the hell can there be so many of these mergers this far down the road? I don’t trust anything I thought I knew on the topic. I am going to apply to my college for a refund.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>