This week’s Cosmic Quiz question comes from James Sylvester, who asks,
“If the speed of light is the highest attainable speed, why can’t it escape a black hole?”
First, a few words about the speed of light, which is indeed the fastest speed attainable through space. How fast is it?
The speed of light: It's not just an engineering challenge - it's the law.
The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. That works out to about 186,000 miles per second.
Trying to go at or faster than light through space requires inventing exotic new mathematics that permit real number answers to equations that involve division by zero and square roots of negative numbers. If you can figure out how to do this sort of math, a Nobel prize is yours for the asking.
The speed of light is more than just a zillion times faster than we’ve ever been able to achieve with our technology, it’s also a fundamental constraint on everything – both matter and energy – in the universe.
So if nothing is faster than light, than how can a black hole “trap” light?
Light is trapped in black holes because black holes bend space itself.
All objects with mass curve the space around them. Objects with little mass, such the Earth and Moon, only curve space a tiny amount, while objects with the mass of stars curve space a lot more. For a really massive object, like a black hole, the curvature of space they create in their vicinity is so severe that space is wrapped completely around itself.
Here’s a way to create a model of a black hole:
Take a sheet of paper. That’s the universe. To keep things simple, let’s declare that this is a one-dimensional universe, in that objects within this universe all exist along a single mathematical line and they can move in one direction only – left and right along that line. In this 1-d universe there is no such thing as moving up and down on the paper, nor can you be anywhere except on the paper.
A one-dimensional universe. Everything exists on a straight line.
To get from the left side of the paper (we’ll call that point “A”) to the right side of the paper (we’ll call that point “B”) you have to move in a straight line on the surface of the paper.
Without massive objects being present, the 1-d universe lies completely flat, and the shortest route (indeed, the only route) between A and B is along that flat straight line. So far so good. The shortest path between two points in flat universe is along a straight line.
But what if you introduce a massive object, like a star, into your 1-d universe?
The mass of the star bends space itself. You, living on the paper in this simplified universe, don’t see this curvature because your line of sight can only follow the line through space. Seen with the benefit of having extra dimensions (as you are when you hold the paper) you see a straight line traveling on a curved piece of paper. Is the line still straight? YES. It’s the space itself that’s curved.
The line from A to B really is straight, it just travels through curved space.
In this 1-d universe imagining a jump from A to B without following the straight line is the equivalent of imagining a science-fiction jump through “hyperspace.”
What if the object on the line of your paper is so massive that it curves space completely around on top of itself? What if point B were inside the region where the curvature of space exceeds 360 degrees?
Then you’d have a black hole. Traveling along a straight line from A to B (as you must in this 1-d universe) you’d encounter a place where space had wrapped around itself and once you enter this region, no matter how fast you go, even at the speed of light, you can never leave.
That’s a 1-d black hole.
Once inside a black hole, you can't ever leave no matter how fast you're going.
Now try imagining a point in space where space itself has been curved on top of itself in all dimensions – left-right, up-down, forward-backward, and time itself.
Black holes capture light (thus making them “black”) because light is trapped within a region of infinitely inward-curving space.
In a real-world Black Hole, space curves on top of itself in all dimensions.
The term “mind-bending” seems appropriate, don’t you think?
Tags: black hole, Cosmic Quiz, light, space, speed
When you say the black hole doesnt let light escape, what does it do with it then? like where does it go? how do we know it doesnt end up somewhere else
~ Jessica Moore 16
What is inside in the black hole? Should we call this thing the vacume cleaner of the space? Is there is another universe for the solar system? Why we cannot go there? Can we think in a mythology way?
What is inside a black hole?
What’s inside it is all the mass that went into making it plus whatever the black hole has eaten since it formed.
BUT, there are no atoms inside a black hole. The components of atoms – protons, neutrons and electrons – have all been crushed out of existence and occupy an infinitely small and infinitely dense point known as a “singularity.”
There is not a single atom of matter that we would recognize within a black hole. There’s no such thing as carbon, oxygen, iron, silicon or even so much as an atom of hydrogen in a black hole’s singularity.
Why can’t we go there? Well, actually, you can – but you have to be willing to let the black hole kill you in a rather spectacular and gruesome manner on the way in.
As you got close to the black hole’s event horizon your spaceship and your body would be pulled into a long, spiraling parade of atoms traveling in single file as the black hole’s immense tidal forces overcame your body’s ability to hold itself together. The molecules of your body are torn apart by the tidal forces present near a black hole. Astronomers refer to the process as “Spaghettification.”
“Can we think in a mythology way?” Sure you can! Let your imagination run wild. Science fiction depends on people using their imagination.
Just remember though, there are no atoms in a black hole.
Just for argument sake this is all speculation though right? No proof or evidence that these are the properties of a black hole are available. Theories are not law. No man on earth has ever come close enough to a black hole to form a valid opinion on what exist within. Although I agree, and most likely this all true, we have no proof that atoms do not exist within a black hole. Science fiction theories on black holes being portals to time travel and new dimensions are honestly as believable as these. Science is fact and this is not that.
Well…
I’m going to gently take issue with a couple of the points you make.
While it is true that no one has actually sent a probe into a black hole in a direct search for atoms (the closest black hole to Earth is about 1,600 light years distant), the nature of black holes themselves prevents such an experiment while at the same time the laws of physics pretty much make it impossible for an atom (involving a nucleus and one or more electrons occupying a discreet volume of space) to exist.
Remember that a black hole is by definition a singularity – that is, a point with no dimensions. None. It has no width, height or breadth. It’s a mathematical point in space.
Moreover, the tidal forces experienced by any matter just before it crosses over the edge of the event horizon all but guarantee that prior to falling beyond this ultimate point-of-no-return at a black hole no atom can hold onto its nuclear structure, let alone hang on to its electrons.
And regarding the point you make about “theories are not law,” I don’t believe that’s a scientifically accurate statement. In science, the word “theory” means much, much more than just someone’s educated guess.
Scientists use the term “theory” to represent an explanation that is testable, predictive, coherent, parsimonious and yet encompasses the largest available body of observable facts.
Examples of these would be Germ Theory and the Relativity Theory. The fact that these are “theories” doesn’t mean it might be OK to eat stuff in your fridge that’s been there so long it has begun growing fur, or to doubt that atomic bombs are real.
I hope this helps.
I know this is impossible, but if you were say going faster than the speed of light, could you escape a black hole even if you were inside the event horizon?
I realize that this answer may not be very satisfying.
It would require a fundamental change to the laws of physics for any signal to travel faster than light. Such a change would also alter General Relativity. As the properties of a black hole are determined by these laws, such a major change could potentially alter those properties in significant and unexpected ways. Therefore, it would be difficult to predict what might happen under those circumstances.
Around the world, research stations are trying hardronovy particle accelerator.
This device helped by the rapid weather changes and also to create a black hole.
It is my opinion because the storms, wind and sudden weather changes be opened for several months.
In the past, so was not able to change the weather.
I know that the world is tested for various things but I do not know shillings.
This is my opinion.