Space and its wonders: BLACK HOLES
What is a black hole ?
We’re sure everyone knows, but just in case you don’t we’re going to give you some basic information. Black hole is an area in space where nothing can escape, not even light(according to the theory of relativity). Black hole is created when a star of sufficient mass undergoes a gravitational collapse having all or most of its mass squeezed into a zero-volume area(singularity). In very simple words, Black Hole is just some object, so compact, that it’s gravitational field doesn’t allow anything move away from it.
Just in case you wondered, black hole doesn’t look or work like that:
http://www.youtube.com/v/P5_Msrdg3Hk
Does black hole mean singularity ?
Not exactly. Singularity is a central part of the black hole where matter is crushed into infinite density. It’s a point of infinite gravity and infinite spacetime distortions/curvature.
What’s event horizon ?
First of all you should know that around a black hole there is an area or border, that once you cross, you have no way of return. That’s the event horizon. If you were travelling towards the event horizon you wouldn’t notice anything disturbing and eventually you would cross the event horizon in the finite amount of proper time (time measured by a single clock between events that occur at the same place as the clock), but from the observers point of view, traveler would start slowing down and actually never cross the event horizon itself. Event horizon can range from few miles to the size of our solar system (that’s what scientists found so far) or even greater.
How to see a black hole ?
You can’t see a black hole since it doesn’t reflect anything, absorbs all the light coming towards it, but you can observe how it affects a matter around it. To see on your own, how a black hole can be tracked, follow the instruction at the end of this article.
Where can I find a black hole ?
The answer is simple, everywhere in the space. It’s literally filled with black holes. You can find them in some distant part of space where no planets or matter travels (at least not anymore) or very close, closer than you think. Scientists found a supermassive black hole (4 million solar masses) in the center of the Milky Way, yes the very same Milky Way in which our solar system is.
Video about the supermassive black holes (few words on what’s that exactly):
http://www.youtube.com/v/leZdJmUF4lM
Are black holes matter eating monsters only ? See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/v/0yMca0bFAdQ
Mysteries of deep space: Black Hole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw5trKz_kdc
If you want to know everything about black holes I’d advise you to visit this website:
http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/home.html
It provides many useful information as well as simple movies illustrating how a black hole works, how can it be created (you can even create your own black hole – THAT’S CRAZY !!!) , you can visit few black holes as well (for example the one that is closest to Earth).
For example, to see the black hole closest to the Earth, go to the website, then click “Journey to a Black Hole”, then click “The Voyage” at the top of the page, pick Cygnus X-I and get past the set of semi-annoying instructions in order to “see” the black hole (We think it’s worth it)
Discussion topics
1. We’re sure almost all of you heard about the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) located in the CERN institute. Some people believe that a miniature black hole may be created during the experiments using the LHC. Do you think it’s possible? What could be the results of such an event?
2. What do you think is behind the event horizon of a black hole? Parallel universe or maybe a time-travel tunnel? Be creative !
3. If there is a black hole (matter consuming thing) maybe there is something completely opposite to it? This theoretical creation is called a “white hole” and it’s a hole that is supposed to create matter spontaneously. Do you think it exists? Is it even possible?
1) From what I've heard it can create mini black hole although they will not have enought energy to sustain themselves and will disappear in less then 1 second.
ReplyDelete2) Well I don't believe in fiction theories so I doubt there is anything special.
3) It might be possible but I'm not a scientist and I'd leave this question to them :)
1) I heard the same informations as Michał and that's all I know. I'm not really into these topic so I don't gather more information than from daily news.
ReplyDelete2) I think that a black hole is just some kind of door to the other "room". And there are all the things that got sucked into it from our side ;)
3) According to my anwser to question 2, a white hole could be the other side of black hole- also the door, but with the opposite direction of sucking things :)
In my opinion black holes are one of the deepest mysteries of the entire universe and modern science. It is told that nothing dies in nature. Then what happens to the matter that is sucked into the center of the hole. Maybe the particles are being transmitted to some other dimensions or unknown places where they are being thrown away by something just opposite to a black hole like, let us say “white hole”. Probably such space-time tunnels really exist and I strongly believe that in the future we will use them as portals to travel in instant between galaxies. But for now is just science fiction. The only thing that we know about them is that the holes possess extreme gravity potential that even disturbs time field in its area. Let’s imagine that we could use a spaceship much faster than the light and capable of sustaining in extreme gravity conditions. If we have travelled with it near the black hole it would be possible to come back to earth in the medieval ages.
ReplyDeleteWell it's hard to say anything as I have almost no knowledge in the subject. However, it seems to be very interesting. Still, I don't believe in any 'other' parallel worlds not to mention time-travel tunnels ;) But who knows, maybe one day we will be informed about new discovery ? That would definitely change our lives ;)
ReplyDelete1) Every time when somebody is asking me about LHC I think about this page: http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/
ReplyDeleteYou should all check it out ;]
2 and 3) Its hard to answer these questions but I hope that one day someone smart will filly answer them correctly ;]
1. I think that even very small black holes created in CERN are very dangerous, because they are in EARTH not in 8,000KKK... millions km from us:)
ReplyDelete2. Hmm.. event horizon.. It was film with the title: "Event Horizon"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/
I think thats movie explains what can be behind black hole or another unexplained by since things...
3. Maybe.. In my opinion exists "Ipod hole" which create Ipods :):):) unfortunately I dont know where this hole is :) Summing up if cant You show me for example "white hole", for me its not exists..
I have heared about the LHC but I don't have specific knowledge to speculate what can can happen in there. I rather wait and see then make conspiracy theories :).
ReplyDeleteI would say its just a really big amount of dense mass so that even light cannot escape from it. I think that people speculate about black holes and want them to be some kind of portals or some other Sci-Fi inventions. It seems to me too unreal but who knows.
I'm not familiar with white holes and don't know how would this work. This is just a theory that they exist and are not proven to exist. It would be really amazing thing if they would.
1) It feels strange to know there is (however miniature it is) a black hole somewhere on our planet
ReplyDelete2) I cannot really answer this question but I remember great movie about, well, not "black hole" as it was in fact about "black block", artificial intelligence (HAL computer) and it is one of my favorite movies I've ever watched. It's Space Odyssey 2001 and its sequel Space Odyssey 2010. Those "black blocks" was... I won't spoil it as some of you haven't probably seen those movies. Answer is at the end of the second one and believe me - it is worth to watch them.
3) Cannot answer that for same reason mentioned above - watch Space Odyssey if you haven't already!
Black hole always interested me, it's so bizarre thing like a drain in the universe. With extremely large mass, such gravity that even light can't escape.
ReplyDelete1) in theory if there is a miniature black hole it will eat everything around it a grow ? sounds dangerous :)
2)i think it must lead somewhere when there's a enter , exit also must exists. Where ? it's over my percpection
3)Many scientist say that opposite end of black holes are the white holes. I wonder if we're going to find that out. ( I hope we will !)