![]() ![]() ![]() They realized that it would require a tremendously violent process or event to compress such gigantic quantities of matter into an extremely small space. And this is why scientists have devoted so much time and effort in recent years to understanding how they form, as well as their properties. If mini–black holes do exist, therefore, their physical effects on large bodies are minimal and they are of little concern to human beings and any other living beings inhabiting the universe.īy contrast, black holes of stellar and larger masses have far more important potential consequences for the universe and life. The channel cut through a planet by a mini–black hole would be so small and narrow that it would be far less noticeable or consequential than a tunnel dug through a garden by an ant. It will then pass through the hot vapor, absorbing it as it goes and adding to the heat, emerging at last as a considerably larger black hole than it was when it entered. It will engulf the first bit of matter with which it collides, liberating enough energy in the process to melt and vaporize the matter immediately ahead. If a mini–black hole collides with a larger body, it will simply bore its way through. ![]() Such a cosmic meeting would probably be neither dangerous nor catastrophic, however. If so, sooner or later a few might come close to an asteroid, planet, or other large solid body and be drawn to it by its gravity. Hawking and others think that millions of such mini–black holes might still exist in various parts of the universe. The squeezed matter might shrink to a point where the mounting gravitational intensity would keep it shrunk forever. Part of this colliding matter might then be squeezed together under enormous pressure from all sides. Some different sections of the expanding substance might collide. "With vast quantities of matter exploding all over the place," Isaac Asimov explains, What force or process, then, could have created mini–black holes? In the early 1970s, noted British physicist Stephen Hawking offered a believable answer, namely that these tiny superdense objects came into being during the Big Bang-the enormous explosion in which, most scientists believe, the known universe was created. So the formation of the smaller version likely has nothing to do with the life and death of stars. Such mini–black holes would have no obvious connection with star-sized, or stellar, black holes. Yet its matter would be so densely compacted that it would weigh something like 100 trillion tons! An even tinier black hole-say the size of an atom's nucleus-would still tip the scales at about a billion tons. A mini–black hole might be the size of an atom. ![]() After John Wheeler coined the term black hole in 1967, a number of scientists began theorizing about miniature black holes. However, the mathematical equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity allow for the existence of black holes of any size, including very small ones. So the quest to understand how such bodies form concentrated on the life cycles of and physical processes within stars. Ever since the days of Michell and Laplace, astronomers and physicists had focused their attention on star-sized objects with extreme gravity. Over time, scientists came to realize that there might be more than one answer to this question, depending on the size of the black hole. Twentieth-century predictions that black holes might exist naturally raised the question of how such superdense objects could form. Chapter 2 Dying Stars and the Formation of Black Holes ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |