What Is The Black Hole Essay Research

What Is The Black Hole Essay, Research Paper

What exactly IS a black

hole.

With all the excitement surrounding the new Star Wars movie, it is a

big day for lovers of science fiction. But how much does the average person

really understand about beaming up; phasers and photons; wormholes and

warp drive. How powerful are these fantasies compared to the real thing. If

theories of their existence are true, black holes are the most powerful force in

the known physical universe; however, do they even exist. Most scientists

believe so, but by their very nature, black holes are impossible to observe.

One can only see how the hole affects the space around it, and draw

conclusions from there. Enough information is known to imagine what it

would be like to explore one in a spaceship during a far distant Star Wars

future, though.

Many people are familiar with the term black hole, but few people

actually know anything about this phenomenon beyond reading science

fiction books. A black hole forms as a result of a massive star running out of

fuel to burn. Once the star is no longer exerting outward force by burning off

gases, it begins to collapse under its own intense, inward gravity (Chaisson

193). It is like slowly letting the air out of a balloon. Once the star is shrunk

to a certain size, while its mass, or weight, remains the same, its gravity

becomes so powerful that nothing can escape (Hawking 87). This critical size

to weight ratio is known as the Schwarzchild Radius (Hawking 87). Once a

black hole is created in this way, an invisible area, or boundary exists. If any

object crosses this line, it can no longer escape the gravitational force of the

black hole (Hawking 87). This line is called the event horizon (Hawking 87).

If black holes are proven to exist, beyond theoretical physics, then they would

probably be a very common anomaly in this universe. In 1915, Albert

Einstein put forth the first real proposition of such an anomaly in his Theory

of Relativity (Black Holes FAQ). In the 1930s, three physicists, doctors

Volkoff, Snyder and Oppenheimer, were able to prove the validity of black

holes mathematically. Since then, black holes have become a very important

and integral part of science and the over all understanding of the universe. It

has been proven, mathematically, that black holes have infinite gravity based,

escape velocities and an immense affect on light, time and even the very

fabric of space.

What exactly is an escape velocity. All bodies in space have gravity.

According to Einstein s Theory of Relativity , this is because bodies with a

large mass, or weight, actually warp space (Chaisson 77). For example, if a

two dimensional sheet of cloth, stretched and suspended at four corners,

represents space, and a bowling ball is placed in the center, the sheet will

warp downward. If a golf ball is then set at the edge of the sheet and allowed

to move freely it will be attracted toward the bowling ball, unless the golf ball

is traveling at a speed great enough to not be affected by the curve. This

critical speed is known as an escape velocity. This is the speed at which an

object must travel to escape a body s gravitational force (Chaisson 77). If a

body is compacted, such that its weight stays the same but its radius, or size,

becomes smaller, it s escape velocity increases in proportion (Chaisson 196).

The simple formula for this, in physics, states that a body s escape velocity is

equal to the square root of its mass, divided by its radius (Chaisson 77). Since

a black hole s size is always decreasing and it s weight is always the same,

the escape velocity is infinite (Chaisson 195). This means that nothing can

escape a black hole past the event horizon, not even light.

Light is made up of waves and particles. These particles strike an

object and bounce off. After they ve bounced off the object they move at a

different speed and direction. When the hit our eyes, or telescopes, or other

instruments, we interpret the speed and movement and see what they ve

bounced off. It was discovered, in 1676, by Danish astronomer, Ole

Christenson, that light travels at a very high, but finite speed (Hawking 18).

These properties of light govern that it must be subject to forces of nature,

such as gravity, and a black hole has more than enough gravity to spare.

Light travels at such a high speed that it is not affected by gravity, unless that

gravity is very strong. A black hole s gravity is powerful enough to trap light

because its escape velocity, being infinite, exceeds the speed of light

(Hawking 82). This is why a black hole is black. Once light crosses the event

horizon, it is drawn into the hole in space. Although the light is still hitting

objects, it is not able to bounce off to indicate their existence to an observer,

therefore the black hole

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