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random info on black holes
I'm not studying any science (unless you include economics), but I have always found black holes and other trippy modern-physics-related stuff interesting so I thought I would include some stuff about black holes as their seems to be some confusion.
A black hole is an extremely small region of space-time, with a gravitational field so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape. Black holes can be formed by the death, or gravitational collapse of a massive star. When such a star has exhausted its internal thermonuclear fuels at the end of its life, it no longer produces the expansive force (a result of normal gas pressure) that supports the star against the compressive force of its own gravitation. The core of the now “red supergiant” collapses causing a massive explosion called a supernova. If the core remaining after a supernova is more than three solar masses (three times the Sun) the star continues collapse without limit to an indefinitely small size.
Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity explains gravity in terms of space-time being curved in the vicinity of matter, the greater the concentration of matter, the greater the curvature. Imagine space as a sheet of rubber, a massive object (eg Earth) when placed on this sheet of rubber will cause it to curve - hence objects placed in the vicinity of the object will gravitate towards it, following the trajectory of the curved rubber. Thus when the radius of a collapsing star decreases below the critical Schwarzschild radius (explained below), the extreme curvature of space seals off contact with the outside world. The crushing weight of constituent matter falling in from all sides has compressed the dying star to a theoretical point of zero volume and infinite density, pressure and temperature called the singularity (imagine something infinitely small and reaaally heavy being placed on the 'rubber sheet' - the "curvature" produced would be so extreme that it tears the sheet). The former star is now a black hole, a hole in the fabric of our universe.
Details of the structure of a black hole are calculated from general relativity. The singularity constitutes the centre of a black hole and is hidden by the object's "surface," - the event horizon. Inside the event horizon the escape velocity (i.e., the velocity required for matter to escape from the gravitational field of a cosmic object) exceeds the speed of light, so that not even rays of light can escape into space. Any object sucked into a black hole (say for example your favourite forum troll) would be stretched to infinite length and become infinitely thin, an effect some geek decided to aptly call ‘spaghettification’. The critical radius of the event horizon is called the Schwarzschild radius, after the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild, who in 1916 predicted the existence of collapsed stellar bodies that emit no radiation. The size of the Schwarzschild radius is thought to be proportional to the mass of the collapsing star (the star’s mass multiplied by twice the constant of gravity and divided by the speed of light squared: 2GM/c2). For a black hole with a mass 10 times as great as that of the Sun, the radius would be 30 km. Only the most massive stars (those of more than three solar masses) become black holes at the end of their lives. Stars with a smaller amount of mass evolve into less compressed bodies, usually either white dwarfs or neutron stars.
The most likely place to find a black hole seems to be in the vicinity of an ordinary star (since a black hole can be detected only by its gravitational effects on nearby matter). If a black hole is a member of a binary star system, matter flowing into it from its companion becomes intensely heated and then radiates X rays copiously before entering the event horizon of the black hole and disappearing forever. The disc of matter spiraling into the black hole is known as an accretion disc. Most physicists now believe that one of the component stars of the binary X-ray system Cygnus X-1 is a black hole. Discovered in 1971 in the constellation Cygnus, this binary consists of a blue supergiant and an invisible companion star that revolve about one another in a period of 5.6 days. When it was discovered, Stephen Hawking (the wheelchair-physicist-dude with the talking computer) won a bet and proudly presented a colleague with a yearly subscription to Penthouse magazine.
Some black holes are thought to have nonstellar origins. In theory, a black hole can form when a mass of any amount is compressed to a sufficient degree. Various astronomers have speculated that large volumes of interstellar gas collect and collapse into supermassive black holes at the centres of quasars and peculiar galaxies (e.g., galactic systems that appear to be exploding). A mass of gas falling rapidly into a black hole is estimated to give off more than 100 times as much energy as is released by the identical amount of mass through nuclear fusion. Accordingly, the collapse of millions or billions of solar masses of interstellar gas under gravitational force into a large black hole would account for the enormous energy output of quasars and certain galactic systems. By the mid-1980s there was mounting observational evidence that a supermassive black hole with a mass four million times that of the Sun exists at the centre of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
The existence of another kind of nonstellar black hole has been proposed by Stephen Hawking (wheelchair dude again, incase you’ve forgotten). According to Hawking's theory, numerous tiny primordial black holes, possibly with a mass equal to that of an asteroid or less, might have been created during the big bang, (for those who dont know- a state of extremely high temperatures and density in which the universe is thought to have originated some 20 billion years ago). These so-called mini black holes, unlike the more massive variety, lose mass over time and disappear. If this were so, many of these black holes could be too far from other matter to form detectable accretion disks, and they could even compose a significant fraction of the total mass of the universe. If you have ever thought black holes are “like gateways into another dimension or sumthin” do not be embarrassed: In reaction to the concept of singularities, Hawking has also proposed that black holes may, rather than collapsing in such manner, instead form “worm holes” to other universes besides our own [insert appropriate spooky soundtrack].
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nly a concept
