this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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I mean... 7 hours isn't that long. Especially depending on the size of the star that was consumed. Even the Sun's light can take thousands of years to actually exit the sun. While sure, gamma rays should have an easier time exiting a star, 7 hours is still a fucking photograph flash to a stellar event...
(also who ever is surprised a black hole would win against ANY star is either playing a fool or fucking braindead)
The wording is not how light from our sun works... Unless you're simplifying greatly. It's not in a maze or some container that takes thousands of years to escape. The light is based on photons that are emitted via nuclear fusion then some mass being converted to energy/photons.
I've read that photons can bounce around (i.e. be absorbed and re-emitted) an estimated 40,000 years... but we all should understand that is a) an estimate and b) an estimate for the inner-most photons. Photons created via near-surface level areas of the sun may be emitted outward from the sun near-instantaneously.
All this to say that the light/photon(s) don't/doesn't start out as light. However, once a photon exists, it may be trapped for thousands of years due to the shear amount of mass trapping it and needing to be absorbed/re-emitted until space-bound!
Greatly simplifying, yes.
The point is the vast majority of stellar scale events are crazy slow compared to what we'd normally assume, because stars are insanely huge. 7 hours is still a flash in the pan.
The black hole didn't just drop straight in. The sun was undoubtedly orbiting the black hole. It'd take time for the matter to even get close enough. 7 hours sounds crazy fast to me.
If minutes is normal for a gamma ray burst, hours is an order of magnitude longer. Still, flash in the pan indeed! Lucky we caught it.