What’s Normal About a Black Hole?

The Chandra X-ray telescope has been incredibly successful in bringing us information from distant galaxies. It has now identified a normal black hole, meaning it was derived from the standard stellar evolution process. This case is unique, because the black hole was identified for the first time in a distant galaxy 12 million Light Years away. Also, North Korea tried and failed to join the club of space nations when its rocket failed to launch.  Is it simply difficult in general to get something launched or does this speak to their failures? All three attempts by North Korea have failed in the past couple of decades, so this may be a result of not having a strong enough government support system with the talent and funding to be successful. And don’t miss the many great planets visible in the Spring sky, a highlight being the Lyrid meteor shower.  Although the rate of meteors per hour could be less than impressive, you’ll have an opportunity to see the shower over this coming weekend.  All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20120416.mp3]