Into a Black Hole
INTO A BLACK HOLE
INTRODUCTION:
According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn't collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a "white hole" at the other end of the black one, the theory goes.
In a recent paper published in the journal Physics Letters B, Indiana University physicist Nikodem Poplawski presents new mathematical models of the spiralling motion of matter falling into a black hole. His equations suggest such wormholes are viable alternatives to the "space-time singularities" that Albert Einstein predicted to be at the centre of black holes.
DIFFERENT THEORIES PROPOSED:
According to Einstein's equations for general relativity, singularities are created whenever matter in a given region gets too dense, as would happen at the ultra dense heart of a black hole.
Einstein's theory suggests singularities take up no space, are infinitely dense, and are infinitely hot—a concept supported by numerous lines of indirect evidence but still so outlandish that many scientists find it hard to accept.
It is said that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this truer than in the case of black holes. Black holes are stranger than anything dreamt up by science fiction writers, but they are firmly matters of science fact.
In fact, science fiction writers should not have been taken so much by surprise. The idea behind black holes, has been around in the scientific community for more than 200 years. In 1783, a Cambridge don, John Michell, wrote a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, about what he called dark stars. He pointed
out that a star that was sufficiently massive and compact, would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape. Any light emitted from the surface of the star, would be dragged back by the star's gravitational attraction, before it
INTRODUCTION:
According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn't collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a "white hole" at the other end of the black one, the theory goes.
In a recent paper published in the journal Physics Letters B, Indiana University physicist Nikodem Poplawski presents new mathematical models of the spiralling motion of matter falling into a black hole. His equations suggest such wormholes are viable alternatives to the "space-time singularities" that Albert Einstein predicted to be at the centre of black holes.
DIFFERENT THEORIES PROPOSED:
According to Einstein's equations for general relativity, singularities are created whenever matter in a given region gets too dense, as would happen at the ultra dense heart of a black hole.
Einstein's theory suggests singularities take up no space, are infinitely dense, and are infinitely hot—a concept supported by numerous lines of indirect evidence but still so outlandish that many scientists find it hard to accept.
It is said that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this truer than in the case of black holes. Black holes are stranger than anything dreamt up by science fiction writers, but they are firmly matters of science fact.
In fact, science fiction writers should not have been taken so much by surprise. The idea behind black holes, has been around in the scientific community for more than 200 years. In 1783, a Cambridge don, John Michell, wrote a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, about what he called dark stars. He pointed
out that a star that was sufficiently massive and compact, would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape. Any light emitted from the surface of the star, would be dragged back by the star's gravitational attraction, before it