"Oh, glorious day! A new black hole, closer even than Kepler-452b!", Prof Goodhope exclaimed at the news.
"With over 100 million black holes unaccounted for, there's bound to be one closer yet," Prof Heida countered.
With that, Goodhope determined he'd be next to discover a black hole.
Two days later, he leapt from his telescope, shouting, "Marianne, another one: closer!"
They scouted the forums to check if anyone had reported what Goodhope thought he'd discovered.
Dozens of reports of new black holes appearing all over the Milky Way filled the threads…
…but none reported where Goodhope had located his!
"We have to register this, Goodhope," Marianne enthused, "Get your name in the history books, in perpetuity!"
The queue on blackholeregistry.net's number (dark web) was incredible…
"Do you think we'll find more, Marianne?" Goodhope asked, adding, "You should have the next one!"
"As it is", she replied, "there'll be enough for everyone!"
"I wonder," Goodhope thought outloud, "what would happen if one materialised near Eart…"
As if summoned, a black hole appeared right beside the moon. Goodhope never did get to register his find…
Brief:
Flash fiction, prompted in the SciFi Roundtable (Facebook).
Write a flash fiction about this piece* and let us see how you use it as story fuel!
- Write a flash fiction inspired by *the article;
- 200 words is the limit;
- If you find yourself wanting to write more, post the first 200 words in the comments and direct people to the rest that you upload in the files.
*"Nearest black hole to Earth discovered"
Marianne Heida, a postdoctoral fellow at ESO, told BBC News:
"Astronomers have spotted only a couple of dozen black holes in our Milky Way Galaxy to date, nearly all of which strongly interact with their accretion discs.
"But statistics tell us there must be many, many more out there.
"In the Milky Way, the idea is that there should be about 100 million black holes.
"So there should be perhaps a couple more that are closer by still."
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