Common Misconceptions Of Black Holes

There are many common misconceptions about black holes whether it is that they destroy matter or that there is no way to ever escape a black hole. Black holes have this wrap on them that all matter that enters their event horizon is never coming out but, that can not be entirely true. The law of conservation states that no matter can be created or destroyed so, matter can not just be destroyed in black holes. In order to truly understand black holes one must first be able to understand event horizons and information paradoxes too. The theories of black holes people once thought were true, may be wrong.
Black holes were originally brought up by Albert Einstein when he came out with his theory of general relativity in 1915. Einstein explains
that, “The force of gravity corresponds with the curvature of space and time and since a black hole warps the spacetime continuum so largely it creates a very strong gravitational force,” (“New Scientist”). Later around 1967, John Wheeler came up with the term “Black hole” back when black holes were still a theories, no one knows exactly why he choose this name though. But, what exactly is a black hole? “A black hole is a star that gets to such a high density that it’s own gravity causes it’s core to collapse in on itself forming a pinpoint hole,” (“Stardate”). Since a black hole is so dense it warps the space time continuum causing it to slow time down and have a very strong gravitational force. Imagine it like this, there’s a bowling ball on a trampoline, the bowling ball is going to cause the trampoline to cave down. That trampoline is the space time continuum and the bowling ball is a black hole. Now imagine putting just a marble on the trampoline it is only going to cave down a little bit.
However, if that marble were next to the bowling ball the marble would fall into the bowling ball’s pull. That represents the gravitational force of a black hole. A black hole’s gravitational force is so strong that not even light can escape it. Light cannot escape a black hole nor can it move around inside it, That means that the time is at complete zero inside a black hole because light is traveling at zero kilometers per second so, it is zero. Also, around a black hole time slows down because the black hole itself is such a dense object in space it slows down objects around itself. One would think that after knowing about black holes for so many years people would perfect their theories, but that is beyond what is true. Infact people have only be known legdenable about black holes for a century and only actually found one in 1971 (“What is a Black Hole?”). Compared to other theories that is a very short time to be developed. So, there could be many faults within the theories themselves, but there is always room for correction. In addition to understanding black holes, one would also have to understand what an event horizon is.
Event horizons are the theoretical boundaries that surround a black hole, (“Stephen Hawking Lecture - How to Escape Out of a Black Hole”).
The event horizon can only last as long as the black hole does. While inside an event horizon it is believed that one would be able to see the black hole because one would be looking straight down at the black hole. One cannot see a black hole on the outside because nothing can escape a black hole meaning light cannot be seen outside. However, once one enters the event horizon of a black hole there it is said to have no return. The reason that one could not return after entering the event horizon is because the force of the gravity is so strong that drags them down and nothing can escape that strong pull of gravity. Since there is such a powerful force, if one were to fall down a event horizon by the time that person were able to reach the center of the black hole they would be broken into particles. Imagine it like this, “A person is on a canoe going down Niagara Falls, once they reach a certain point the person can not get back up, while going down the gravity is stronger at the tip of the canoe than the end so, the canoe breaks in half,” (“Stephen Hawking on Black Holes”). That is exactly what would happen to a person falling into a black hole but, by the time they actually got into the black hole they would be so broken up they would look like spaghetti. The only thing is everything people have predicted about event horizons could
be wrong. Of course some things still are correct about the theory such as the fact that one would be in bits when they reach the center but, event horizons in general may be wrong. Recently Stephen Hawking came up with the theory that what surrounds a black hole is actually not an event horizon rather it is rather an apparent horizon. Apparent horizons are different from event horizons because unlike event horizons they “Temporary hold matter before releasing it into Hawking radiation,” (What Stephen Hawking Really Said About Black Holes). This theory is infact more realistic than event horizons because black holes release Hawking radiation and that can be explained through the theory of apparent horizon. The main reason people had a hard time finding black holes is because they are invisible to the naked eye and the only way scientists were able to find them is because they emit radiation. So, understanding why black holes give off radiation is important for scientists to learn how and why. Not only are event horizons important to understand but also, information paradoxes are important to understand too.
Information paradoxes suggest that physical information can disappear in a black hole forever.
The theory of information paradoxes was first suggested by Susskind and his coworkers. Straight after the theory was introduced controversy broke out because the theory violated the Quantum theory. It is described in the Quantum that, “Information is never truly lost; nor is it ever truly copied,” (“Black Hole Information Paradox: An Introduction”). The Quantum theory is very important because it is believed to be the law of nature so, something opposing the law of nature is a huge deal. The information paradox breaks both the rules for one it states that the radiation that black holes emit is copied from what enters the black holes. It is also breaking the rule that information is never truly lost because in the theory of information paradoxes it states that, “The information permanently disappears,” (“Black Hole Information Paradox: An Introduction”). Among the science community there is a debate on which theory may be wrong or may need to be expanded upon. Not only does the information paradox contradict with the Quantum theory it also opposes the law of
conservation.
The law of conservation states that “No mass can be created or destroyed” (“Dunbar, Brian”). Information paradoxes contradict with the law of conservation because the law states no matter can be created or destroyed which means that the information disappearing would not be able to happen. There is also the belief that the matter that gets absorbed into event horizons disappears into another universe that we do not live in but, according to Stephen Hawking that is wrong. Stephen Hawking presumes that instead of matter disappearing into another universe that it rather forms into radiation after a while. How he explains this theory is using this example, “Think of burning an encyclopedia the information is still there but, it is unreadable,” (Stephen Hawking Lecture). That is exactly what happens to the matter that enters the black hole. The information is absorbed into the black hole and is emitted as radiation, so it is still there just not as it was before and illegible. Technically speaking, if one was to burn a log but, all the atoms were still there they would be able to put it back together. Well, of course it is a chemical reaction and they can’t truly put it back together but, theoretically speaking if one still had the atoms one could put it back together what was once there. So, if theoretically one could put back something if the atoms were still there than couldn’t people technically put back together what originally once was in a black hole. Sadly that is only a theory and could not be performed in the actual real world for reason number one we are not close enough to a black hole and reason number two we do not have the technology to form atoms back together. The theories of black holes people once thought were true, may be wrong. Event horizons and information paradoxes are important to understand in order to apprehend black holes. Matter being destroyed inside a black hole contradicts with some theories about space and nature in general, but also information paradoxes defy the Quantum theory because the Quantum theory states on how no information can be lost nor copied. With Stephen Hawking’s recent theory may be a better theory than the past theories on black holes because it explains why black holes emit the radiation they do. While some things about the event horizon may be true, the actual event horizon itself could be wrong and it could instead be an apparent horizon. People’s knowledge on black holes has changed a lot since Einstein originally predicted them in 1915, and hopefully one day people will truly be able to fully understand what a black hole is.