Black hole
hideIn general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect blackbody in thermodynamics. Quantum analysis of black holes shows them to possess a temperature and Hawking radiation.
Despite its invisible interior, a black hole can reveal its presence through interaction with other matter. A black hole can be inferred by tracking the movement of a group of stars that orbit a region in space which looks empty. Alternatively, one can see gas falling into a relatively small black hole, from a companion star. This gas spirals inward, heating up to very high temperature and emitting large amounts of radiation that can be detected from earthbound and earth-orbiting telescopes. Such observations have resulted in the scientific consensus that, barring a breakdown in our understanding of nature, black holes do exist in our universe.
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News tagged with black holes
Qubits and Branes Share Surprising Features
Jul 03, 2008 |
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What do black holes and entangled particles have in common? Until about a year ago, physicists thought that the two entities existed in completely separate worlds. Then, in 2007, physicist Michael Duff from ...
Physicists Rule Out the Production of Dangerous Black Holes at the LHC
Sep 01, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- On August 8, the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, began the process of slowly throttling to full power. When its proton beams are circling ...
Stars Fueled by Dark Matter Could Hold Secrets to the Universe
Nov 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The first stars in the universe may have been very different from the stars we see today, yet they may hold clues to understanding some of the mysterious features of the universe. These "dark ...
Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?
May 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In trying to understand how gravity behaves on the quantum scale, physicists have developed a model that has an interesting implication: mini black holes could be everywhere, and all particles ...
Scientists find black hole 'missing link'
Sep 17, 2008 |
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Scientists at Durham University have found the "missing link" between small and super-massive black holes.
Chinese scientists create metamaterial black hole
Oct 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Two physicists in China have used metamaterials to create the first artificial electromagnetic black hole. The scientists, Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui from the Southeast University in Nanjing, ...
Astronomer Discovers Upper Mass Limit for Black Holes
Sep 05, 2008 |
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There appears to be an upper limit to how big the universe’s most massive black holes can get, according to new research led by a Yale University astrophysicist.
Star crust 10 billion times stronger than steel, physicists find
May 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a theoretical physicist at Indiana University shows that the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other of the earth's strongest metal alloys.
Physicists create BlackMax to search for dimensions in space at the Large Hadron Collider
Nov 07, 2008 |
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A team of theoretical and experimental physicists, with participants from Case Western Reserve University, have designed a new black hole simulator called BlackMax to search for evidence that extra dimensions might exist ...
Black Holes: Eternal Prisons No More, Stephen Hawking's Lecture
Mar 16, 2009 |
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Celebrated physicist, Stephen Hawking, delivered an inspiring speech to a full house in Bovard Auditorium on March 10. USC College Dean Howard Gillman kicked off the event by introducing Nick Warner, professor ...
Could hadron collider devour the Earth?
Jun 28, 2008 |
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Particle colliders creating black holes that could devour the Earth. Sounds like a great Hollywood script. But, according to UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Steve Giddings, it's pure fiction.
Astronomers discover upper mass limit for black holes
Sep 11, 2008 |
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There appears to be an upper limit to how big the universe's most massive black holes can get, according to new research led by a Yale University astrophysicist.
LHC switch-on fears are completely unfounded: new research paper
Sep 05, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new report published on Friday, 5 September, provides the most comprehensive evidence available to confirm that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)'s switch-on, due on Wednesday next week, poses no threat to ...
The Day the World Didn't End
Oct 14, 2008 |
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Here's what didn't happen on Sept. 10th: The world did not end. Switching on the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland, did not trigger the creation of a microscopic bla ...
Colossal black holes common in early universe
Oct 16, 2008 |
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Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were ...
