How are black holes formed?
Let’s cover some of the basic science behind black holes and how they could be related to time travel.
Where do black holes come from?
Black holes, like us, are born from the stars. The elements that make up all living beings originate in stars that explode and spread these elements throughout the cosmos. Likewise, when a star burns up all of its hydrogen, it explodes in a supernova, and then begins to collapse onto itself. It will collapse so dense that it creates a singularity.
What are the details of this process?
Stars, like our Sun, emit light from a process known as fusion. Stars convert energy into light by fusing hydrogen into helium. When a star burns all of its hydrogen it turns into a red giant. At this stage the star now has a helium core with a hydrogen outer layer. This grows and expands the star.
Inside this massive helium core, gravity begins to pull all this matter into itself. The temperature of the core rises dramatically and begins fusion of the helium.
The pressure sends temperatures soaring above a billion degrees, and the rising gravitational force makes lighter elements fuse into heavier ones: first helium to oxygen, then oxygen to silicon, and, finally, silicon to iron. Throughout, the slowly expiring star grows denser and denser.
The red giant is now very dense and causes space time, the four dimensional fabric of space and time, to curve more and more. Fusion continues until all elements are gone except iron.
This is the critical point where fusion can no longer support that pull of gravity in the core, and within a millisecond, the star explodes into a supernova.
The aftermath of the supernova depends on how large the original star was. For stars that are between 1.4 to 2 times the mass of our sun, it will become a neutron star. A neutron star is made up of super dense and heavy neutrons all packed together by the extreme gravity of the core. For solar masses of 3 or more, the star collapses into a black hole. A black hole is condensed so much that gravity prevents even light from escaping it. The fabric of space time has been reduced to a point, known as a singularity.
It is at this point where our math breaks down. Scientists have long searched for a unifying theory where we can explain how matter acts at the singularity. Solving this problem is critical if we are to ever know if time travel is possible. Knowing the conditions at the singularity will also explain the conditions present at the big bang, or before. Having the ability to shape the fabric of space time implies the possibility of manipulating the time factor in the equation.
If time travel proves to not be possible, it is important that we understand why it is not possible. This will lead to further explanation of our physical world and may lead to new technologies and industries that can create jobs, prosperity, and a healthy strong economy. In these troubled economic times, we need to keep moving forward and resist the urge to fall back technically in an attempt to comfort ourselves.
Some blame our current state on the failed promise of technology and the over dependence we face as a society. Computer system that we rely on have proven to not be reliable in all cases. This leads to a backlash of sediment against technology and cries of the nostalgic simpler days. This is the wrong direction to go. The Atomic Writer advocates the responsible, ethical pursuit of knowledge so that we can move forward in a safe humane manner, while continually progressing into the future. There is no turning back – only moving forward.
Remember, never stop looking up at the night sky and asking, what if…
Until next time…
Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer
Amazon.com: “Technothrillers or is it Techno-thriller”
Hello Readers,
Amazon.com: “Technothrillers or is it Techno-thriller”
Either way you want to call it, The Ninth Cube is a new heart racing thriller based on the science of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Brian Greene.
Hailed by Kirkus Discoveries as a “physics-packed techno-thriller,” “anyone who has a flair for the research of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan will appreciate Grippi’s use of physics throughout the novel.” The author wrote The Ninth Cube as a hard science approach to speculative fiction. He intends for it to be as thought-provoking as entertaining.
“The Timeline Triology, Book 1 is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions.
Unlike most trilogies, the Timeline Trilogy is a story told on three different timelines (alternate realities). In Book 1 we learn how timelines are created and the physics behind them. We are introduced to the main characters, Dr. Daniel Lamb and Dr. Tanya Galen.
The Ninth Cube is Book 1 in the Timeline Trilogy.
Until next time….remember never stop looking up at the night sky and asking, what if…
Victor Grippi
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Author Pens Science Fiction Portraying Perils of the Selfish Pursuit of Knowledge
GLAST mission renamed to Femi and first light picture
Nasa’s GLAST mission has been renamed to the Femi mission in honor of Enrico Femi. (see the below biography)
NASA has also released the “first light” image taken from only 95 hours of data from this new instrument. This is only the beginning of great images this satellite will produce. The image is comparable to the EGRET instrument, on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, that took years to produce – instead of hours.
This is a flattened map of the entire sky:
To recap: the FEMI satellite will detect high energy signals like gamma ray bursts that originate from supernova, quasars, and potentially from evaporating black holes, or even the white hole end of wormholes. (for our time traveling friends) If you look at the above image, you can see a red shifted band across the middle of the image. This is from high energy signals, including gamma ray bursts.
Renaming the project to Fermi is a great tribute to an outstanding scientist who was instrumental in breaking new ground in quantum physics. He worked and pursued knowledge without any trace of a selfish motive or intent. This is crucial as we break new ground into technologies that may affect man or environment.
With the CERN LHC coming on-line this week, I want to underscore the importance of proceeding with caution. Most of the work the LHC will do is benign and will have little or no risk. However, one experiment planned is accelerating two particle beams, in opposite directions, and then smashing them together at 0.99999 the speed of light. This will create energies man has never seen before, and the resulting collision may reveal new exotic particles also never seen before. Now, this is a classic example of the need for science to proceed with wisdom and extreme caution as to the possible effects this line of experimentation may do to our environment. In my opinion, NASA should already be on Mars, and this my friends is the place to build a Large Hadron Collider. In the event a catastrophic black hole is produced, well there goes Mars, we’ll all say from a safe distance. Do we really need to find the elusive Higgs particle? Let’s just say it exists and leave it at that…
Perhaps I’m overreacting a bit. I mean heck, back during the Manhattan project scientists were concerned an atomic detonation would ignite hydrogen in the upper atmosphere and scorch the entire planet. Their worries were of course laid to rest when at the Trinity site on July 16, 1945, the upper atmosphere did not burn, the planet was saved. So atomic bombs were deemed safe and not too bad, since they did not destroy the planet. (at least not yet)
Biography of Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was an Italian physicist who immigrated to the United States. He was the first to suggest a viable mechanism for astrophysical particle acceleration. This work is the foundation for our understanding of many types of sources to be studied by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly known as GLAST.
Fermi is most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor and for his major contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on induced radioactivity and is today regarded as one of the top scientists of the 20th century.
In addition to his direct connection to the science, Fermi holds special significance to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Italian Space Agency, and the Italian Particle Physics Agency.
Until next time…
Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer
