We’ve already talked about what would happen
to you if you dove head first into a black
hole.
The coles notes answer: nothing good.
But here’s something that’ll put a wrench
in even the most gruesome black hole death
scenarios: What if black holes don’t exist
at all?
Hey guys, Amy here for DNews.
We have learned a lot about black holes over
the years.
Through observations and calculations, scientists
have told us that black holes form when a
dying star collapses to a point under its
own gravity, and that the resulting high gravitational
environment produces a black hole from which
nothing, not even light, can escape.
And it gets weirder.
Time slows down the closer you get to a black
hole, and some can even contain full galaxies.
But Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton, a theoretical
physicist at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, has a different opinion.
She’s done the math behind collapsing stars
creating black holes and says it just doesn’t
add up.
Specifically, she points to the so-called
"black hole information loss paradox” that
allows black holes to exist in Einstein’s
theory of relativity but not in quantum theory.
The problem in the quantum theory world is
that "information" can never completely disappear
from the universe, which is essentially what
happens when something is sucked into a black
hole.
According to Mersini-Houghton, a collapsing
star actually sheds mass as it shrinks, so
instead of collapsing it shoots its mass out
and explodes.
There’s no superdense core left behind to
become an all-consuming black hole.
A universe without black holes is slightly
simpler to explain.
No black holes means no singularities, those
bizarre points where the density of matter
becomes infinite, the fabric of space-time
tears, and laws of physics cease to have any
meaning.
A universe without singularities means living
in a universe of certainties about stars,
matter, and the physics that govern it all.
But physicists aren’t entirely convinced
by the “no black holes” idea.
Because while the math might point to a universe
without black holes, we have observational
evidence that they do exist, like light and
star’s orbits bending around the strong
gravitational environments.
But that’s one of the greatest things about
space: we know a lot, but there is so much
more to find out!
So what do you guys think: is it possible
that the observations are wrong and we actually
live in a Universe without black holes?
Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget
to subscribe for more DNews every day of the
week.
