Author: EthanK

Just a few weeks ago around May 6, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) discovered a new black hole. The newly discovered black hole is extremely distinct when compared to other black holes, and its special features open up a whole new world to black hole astronomy.

The black hole was discovered in a stellar system called HR 6819, a stellar system of stars orbiting one another. The black hole is only 1000 light years away, which is the closest to the Earth as of now. When HR 6819 was first discovered in the original study, it was thought to be a two-starred system because only two stars could be observed, but in reality, the system contained three “massive” objects.

The third object was the black hole, and it was previously undetected because it was not engaging with its environment much. Most black holes strongly interact with their surrounding environment and cause obvious visible changes. The unique behavior of this is one reason why it was so special.

Now you might be asking, if this black hole was not disturbing its surroundings much, how was it found? This is because when astronomers were observing the orbiting patterns of the stars in HR 6819, they discovered that one of the stars would occasionally separate from the other star and start rotating an invisible object. Through further studies and research surrounding this invisible object, they finally found out that it was a black hole. With the power of math, they concluded that the object had the mass of at least a whopping four suns. With this information, they concluded that the object had to be a black hole. The discovery of an invisible black hole truly makes it special.

Since this invisible black hole is one of the first ever discovered, it marks a step for mankind, and as Dietrich Baade says it, “the tip of an exciting iceberg.” There is already another stellar system called LB-1 that Marianne Heida, a  postdoctoral fellow at ESO, thinks contains an invisible black hole. Additionally the two systems LB-1 and HR 6819 are relatively close to Earth, which means there could be millions of undiscovered black holes lurking in the vast universe.

POEM:

A new black hole is found,

Its location just found.

Its hidden from sight,

So Cookie Monster can’t take a bite.

It sits silently,

yet gravitational attracts stars violently.

When we find a system of three,

Everyone laughs with glee.

There are more black holes to be found,

When will they all come to bound.

This poem is kind of bad,

Don’t make me sad.

THE END

HAIKU 1:

Black Holes are so cool,

They are extremely massive,

And they’re hard to see.

HAIKU 2:

They’re invisble,

They’re always lurking out there,

There’s millions of them.

In Caroline McHugh’s 2013 Ted Talk, The Art of Being Yourself, she emphasized on many ideas surrounding the fact that one should focus on their own life more, and to not spend too much time looking at others. A few of the main concepts she explained were about the ability to express oneself as one ages, the definition of interiority, and why some people are more successful than others.

Imagine a class full of 3 year olds, when someone asks them who is the strongest of them all, obviously, all of them will raise their hands and scream in acceptance. This happens because at a young age, children have not discovered what they are good at yet. Additionally, when children are younger, there are no rules which govern them. This allows them to be more free and therefore express themselves more. If someone asks the same class of 3 year olds 4 years later, the students will all point to a specific person. This is because during the 4 year period, the children will have established who is good at what. That person is good at math, those group of people are really funny, that guy over there reads all day. As people grow up, they start to compare themselves with others in order to determine their “success”. This way of action takes away independence and expressing oneself. As people get older, they will once again start to express themselves more again. This is because they know not much time is left, and they have also seen everything there is to life. Expressing themselves is the only meaningful way to spend the rest of their life until their time has come. The concept of people thinking about themselves ties into the next concept, which is about superiority, interiority, and inferiority. 

Superiority is thinking you are better and more superior than everyone else. Inferiority is thinking everyone is better than you, and how you are inferior. These 2 traits both have something in common, which is they can only happen when one is being compared to others. Without comparison, it is impossible to think you are superior or inferior because there is nothing which can be compared to, which means nothing can be called good, or bad. Interiority is a completely different idea, and it is thinking only about yourself. In this world, there is no competition. People who feel interiority can do a certain task until they are satisfied, and until they want to rest. They do not need to depend on anyone else to see their progress, which allows them to be him or herself. 

When you were created into the world, you were assigned a time to come, and time to go, and your talent. One who is successful has discovered the talent that they were given at birth, and they have used their talent to guide them and help them throughout their life. A human has their entire life to discover the one talent they were assigned, but many people can not find it. People who feel interiority can find their talent a lot quicker than others. This is because during the center of one’s life, people tend to think about themselves the least. What also happens during the center of one’s life is when they are discovering their talent. If people are being compared to others, they will feel the urge to become someone else, who is more successful, but also inherits a different talent. This false urge leads many down the hole of no return, where it is extremely difficult to come back and pursue their own talent. If the person was never being compared to in the first place, they would have discovered their talent without the distraction of another. 

In conclusion, people should think about themselves instead of others for numerous beneficial reasons. Thinking about yourself is the key to becoming successful, happy, and living life to the fullest. As Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”