It could never happen on earth, let alone Los Angeles...
But it is occurring in deep space, near a black hole known as IGR J17091-3624. Astronomers have clocked winds of ionic gases surrounding this object at 20 million mph., or 3% the speed of light using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This object is one component of a binary star system and is located near the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is about 28,000 light-years distant. It is about five to ten times as massive as our sun, hence the term stellar-mass.
These speeds are nearly ten times faster than what would typically be observed in a stellar-mass black hole. Supermassive black holes, which are millions to billions of times more massive, are the only objects considered to be capable of generating velocities such as these.
A black hole is the end result of a star that has used up all of its nuclear “fuel” and under the force of its own gravity, collapses upon itself. But this process continues... from a finite state of collapse into an infinite one, challenging known laws of mathematics and physics. Its mass decreases to zero, at the same time its gravity increases to infinity. It has been calculated that a teaspoonful of mass from such an object would weigh at least several tons. In addition, other strange phenomena are born including the creation of an “event horizon...” a boundary where known existence is altered, because the (infinitely strong) field of gravity is so enormous that even light, traveling at 186,000 miles per second becomes trapped. Therefore, anything that passes into and beyond this “event horizon” essentially disappears from the known and observable universe. This has given rise to a number of theories about the nature of mass, matter, space, time and the very definitions of the universe itself.
Black holes emit powerful jets of energy of different types in multiple directions. Astronomers believe that magnetic fields associated with the structure of black holes are responsible for producing both winds and jets.
Another strange finding relating to this object and its “wind,” is that it may be expelling more material into space than it is capturing. Also, this object, IGR J17091-3624 displays other behavior uncharacteristic of similar objects, hence further study will no doubt be necessary in order to more fully understand the phenomena.
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