BLACK HOLES
Amazing article on Black Holes by Ted Bunn.
Most interesting bits for me were
1) We have always have heard that nothing can escape a black hole - not even light. Now I know why. Its a simple case of escape velocity. Everyone has at some point in their schooling calculated the escape velocity of the earth. But the fact that the escape velocity of any object can be more than 300,000 Km/s is a great revealation for me. A related question that popped into my mind is (Please do pardon me for my ignorance) - if there is a huge planet / star with great mass such that the escape velocity is more than 300,000 km/s would that be a black hole.
2) A black hole with the same amount of mass as our sun would be just 3 kms in radius. Gives a perspective of the density of this black hole.
3) The fact that a one solar mass black hole is the same as a one solar mass object (the Sun) meaning, if we were to replace the sun with a blackhole with the same mass as our sun, everything in the solar system would be exactly as they are now (excepting that there would be no light). This was a total surprise to me (showing my ignorance) as I always believed that black holes grew and hence increase their mass and due to this would increase their gravity and this cycle would eventually lead to the entire galaxy being inside the black hole and untimately the entire universe would be sucked into the black hole. So this revealation is a particularly enlightening and comforting thought that the universe would not be sucked into a black hole.
4) In my mind, I always thought that black holes were a part of a system that would allow objects to transport to other galaxies or universes or even places within the same galaxy. This article kind of makes my belief true by saying that a black hole and a white hole when linked could form a wormhole. However it also says that white holes are only mathematical and havent yet been observed shattering my dreams of inter-universal travel.
If you are even remotely interested or curious, this is a great article. Highly Recommended.
Most interesting bits for me were
1) We have always have heard that nothing can escape a black hole - not even light. Now I know why. Its a simple case of escape velocity. Everyone has at some point in their schooling calculated the escape velocity of the earth. But the fact that the escape velocity of any object can be more than 300,000 Km/s is a great revealation for me. A related question that popped into my mind is (Please do pardon me for my ignorance) - if there is a huge planet / star with great mass such that the escape velocity is more than 300,000 km/s would that be a black hole.
2) A black hole with the same amount of mass as our sun would be just 3 kms in radius. Gives a perspective of the density of this black hole.
3) The fact that a one solar mass black hole is the same as a one solar mass object (the Sun) meaning, if we were to replace the sun with a blackhole with the same mass as our sun, everything in the solar system would be exactly as they are now (excepting that there would be no light). This was a total surprise to me (showing my ignorance) as I always believed that black holes grew and hence increase their mass and due to this would increase their gravity and this cycle would eventually lead to the entire galaxy being inside the black hole and untimately the entire universe would be sucked into the black hole. So this revealation is a particularly enlightening and comforting thought that the universe would not be sucked into a black hole.
4) In my mind, I always thought that black holes were a part of a system that would allow objects to transport to other galaxies or universes or even places within the same galaxy. This article kind of makes my belief true by saying that a black hole and a white hole when linked could form a wormhole. However it also says that white holes are only mathematical and havent yet been observed shattering my dreams of inter-universal travel.
If you are even remotely interested or curious, this is a great article. Highly Recommended.
posted by bluerpk at 7:06 PM
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